


Caught in Between: Season 4 (TVD)

by Hyperion_moonbabe_art3mis



Series: Caught In Between [4]
Category: The Originals (TV), The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-27
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:08:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 30,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27129028
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hyperion_moonbabe_art3mis/pseuds/Hyperion_moonbabe_art3mis
Summary: Summary: Athena Dumont has finally found a place to call home after many years of foster homes and traveling. She had finally tamed her supernatural side and just wanted to live a normal teenage life. She quickly discovers that there is nothing normal about her hometown, Mystic Falls and gets sucked right back into the supernatural world.Find Out how Athena handles her senior year and what she will do next with the Mikaelson family.
Relationships: Klaus Mikaelson/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Caught In Between [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1980086
Comments: 11
Kudos: 12





	1. 23. Changes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Word count: 1.6k
> 
> Based off: 04x01 “Growing Pains”

The next morning I woke up in the forest, very much alive. I was confused on how I was still alive. If I was alive, did that mean Klaus was still alive, or am I some loophole in nature? I felt a buzz from my phone in my pocket and pulled it out to find a dozen texts from Caroline, Damon, and Stefan.

“Elena died with vampire blood in her system. We’re at her house,” Was the last text I read from Stefan. Not even caring for the fact that I was still alive I made my way back to Elena’s house as fast as possible.

I walked into the house hearing the Salvatore brothers fighting, “You wanna let up on your little brother?” You ask walking in. Damon perks up at your voice and quickly comes to hug you.

“You’re alive? How?” He asks.

“I don’t know. But what I do know is that I want to make sure Elena is ok,” I respond.

“Well, I’m sure shd be glad to find out you’re alive. But I gotta get out of here and all this sadness,” Damon says before heading out. I wait for a little until Elena and Stefan make their way down.

“Athena?” I hear Elena say from the stairs. I quickly got up and pulled her into a hug. “How--How are you alive? Klaus died,” She says as Stefan heads into the kitchen.

“I don’t know, but I don’t care about that right now. I just care about you and helping you get through this,” I say as we head into the kitchen. As Elena and I sat down at the island, Stefan brought over some sandwiches. Elena takes a bite of it and makes a disgusted face.

“It’s disgusting,” Stefan states.

“No, it’s um…” Elena starts.

“It’s disgusting,” You say.

“Yeah, I’m going to puke,” Elena admits and spits the sandwich out.

“I never thought I’d be saying this, but I can’t stop thinking about blood,” Elena says.

“I should’ve saved you first, you shouldn’t be going through this right now,” Stefan responds.

“No, if you had saved me, then Matt would be dead. What do you think I’d be going through then?” Elena asks.

“She’s right, Stefan,” I agree.

“Stefan, listen to me. You did the right thing. You did what you always do--you respected my choice,” Elena says moving to Stefan.

“And what am I supposed to do if Bonnie can’t figure out a way to help you, huh? Because then you’ll have another choice to make--either let yourself die or be a vampire,” Stefan states.

“Well, then we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it… Oh, my god. Did--Did I just say ‘cross that bridge?’” Elena says starting to laugh.

“You’re laughing. I’m pretty sure you don’t actually think that’s funny,” I say.

“I--I can’t stop, though,” Elena struggles through her laughs.

“You’re emotions are a bit heightened today...A lot heightened,” Stefan explains as Elena’s laughs turn into sobs. Stefan quickly pulls Elena into a hug.

“I’m sorry, I…,” Elena tries to get out.

“Listen to me. No matter what happens, I’m here for you. I can help you,” Stefan says.

“And I don’t know how I’m alive, but I’m here for you too,” I add. Elean turns to look at me before being stopped by the sun shining in her eyes. 

“Why don’t you go back upstairs where it’s dark. I’ll clean up,” Stefan suggests and Elena heads up.

“I don’t know what we’re gonna do,” Stefan says once Elena is upstairs.

“We can help her through this and let her make her own decision,” I say.

“You’re right. Do you know how you’re still alive?” He asks.

“Honestly...beats me, but I’m gonna go change. I slept in the forest with these clothes and I’d rather not be walking around in them,” I say and head out.

Just as soon as I finished showering and getting dressed I get a call from Damon, “Hello?” I answer.

“Athena. Are you still at Elena’s?” Damon asks.

“No. I left like 30 minutes ago. Why?” I ask.

“Just get back over to Elena’s as quickly as you can,” Damon says and hangs up. I quickly gather my stuff and head back to Elena’s. As I made my way to the porch I saw Caroline’s mom, Liz Forbes, there as well.

“What’s going on?” I ask ber but she just shrugs as she opens the front door.

“They’re gone. Whoever nailed Rebekah took them, too. Please tell me you have something, anything,” Damon says to Liz as Meridith walks towards us.

“I can’t. The council locked Carol and me out of our offices. Files, computers, everything,” Liz explains.

“So the mayor and the sheriff never contemplated a back-up plan, Liz?” Damon asks getting annoyed.

“Damon, relax. When Caroline called to say she got away, did she know where they were planning to take her?” Meredith asks.

No, just that she was in some van in the middle of nowhere and she managed to escape,” Liz explains.

“Perfect. We’ve narrowed it down to nowhere,” Damon says walking away.

“Hey. Is Elena here?” Matt asks walking in. Before anyone could answer Damon quickly pushes Matt against a wall behind him.

“In what world are you the one that gets to live?!” Damon hisses. 

“Damon, stop! It wasn’t his fault!” I say helping Meridith and Liz pry him off.

“Let him go, Damon. Now,” Liz says. A few moments later Damon listens and lets Matt go.

Once everyone calmed down we all started to figure out a way to rescue Elena and Stefan.

“With your vervain and Alaric’s weapons, they could be anywhere,” Liz says.

“Come on, guys, think. It takes a lot to hold a vampire. Reinforced steel, iron doors,” Damon says.

“The pastor has a cattle ranch. Those pens could easily be modified,” Matt says.

“It’s remote, it’s secluded,” Meredith adds.

“Well, guess what. Looks like you get a chance to prove how sorry you really are. Let’s go,” Damon says starting to walk out.

“I’m coming too,” I say and follow them to Damon’s car. Matt had directed Damon to the ranch, which took longer than expected as it was night now. We all get out and head towards the house.

“So what, we just storm the place with zero weapons?” Matt asks as we stand there.

“No, we don’t need weapons. Just bait,” Damon says before sinking his fangs into Matt’s neck.

“Damon…” I say as Damon drops Matt.

“Just go with it Athena,” He says before wiping blood around my mouth making it look like I just fed. I felt the anger rise within me, but I kept my cool. 

“Yoo-hoo! Anybody home? There are two big bad vampires out here,” Damon says as I lean down to make sure Matt was ok.

“Let him go, the boy’s innocent,” The pastor says from his porch.

“Well, that’s the point. Give us Stefan and Elena, he’s all yours. Come on, Pastor. You know we’ll kill him. I want to kill him.” Damon says grabbing Matt by the neckline of his shirt.

“Go away. You two are not invited in! And I’m not coming out,” The pastor says before Damon is shot in the shoulder.

“Ok..Ok. Just hold on,” I say holding my hands up. “We just want Elena and Stefan and we promise once we get them we’ll be out of your hair. Gone,” I plead before I’m shot as well. I try to get up but I feel another shot, finally putting me down. Soon enough two guards come out and poke the two of us. Once they thought it was all clear Damon popped up and killed them.

“Really?” I say as I struggle to get the bullets out.

“What else was I supposed to do?” He asks.

“I don’t know...not kill them,” I say getting up.

“Oh, I’m sorry that you want to keep the guys hunting us down alive,” Damon says with sarcasm before he kicks Matt in his face.

“Damon! Stop!” I say but am ignored.

“Go ahead kill me. You can’t possibly hate me more than I hate myself,” I hear Matt say quietly.

“Oh, yes I can. It should’ve been you,” Damon says stepping on Matt’s neck. I try to pull him off but he just sends me back.

“Leave him alone!” I hear Elena say. Realizing how quickly she got out, which meant she decided to turn. I try to go help Matt up but he just stumbles away into the barn.

“You were gonna kill him,” Elena states as we walk back to the car.

“Yep, the guy just won’t die,” Damon says. I slap him on the chest but he just gives me a confused look.

“It was my choice to save him. Why aren’t you seeing that?” Elena questions.

“And why aren’t you respecting that?” I ask.

“It’s a little hard to keep track of all your choices lately, Elena,” Damon states.

“You don’t need to keep track of all of them, Damon. Just respect the important ones,” I say, furrowing my brows.

“I remember everything,” Elena says. Once I realized this was kind of a private thing I went to the barn to make sure Stefan and Matt were ok.

“Hey, you guys good?” I ask making my way into the barn.

“Yeh, you?” Stefan asks back. 

“I’m good. We should get out of here before more people come,” I say and we all head out.

I go back to the Salvatore house and clean up the mess Damon made on me. And after a long day, I head to bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Just a filler. What do you think will happen when Athena finds out Klaus is alive and well? Thanks for reading.


	2. 24. House Arrest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Word count: 3.4k
> 
> Based off: 04x03 “The Rager”

The next morning I woke up and head school not thinking of the previous night. I met up with Elena and Stefan in the hall before we headed to history, unsure of what to find since Alaric had died.

“So first time we’ve been back in Alaric’s classroom,” Stefan says breaking the awkward silence.

“The first period and I’m ready to ball my eyes out,” Elena says as I squeeze her hand.

“Morning everyone,” Rebekah says bursting into the classroom.

“And just like that, I’m no longer feeling sentimental,” Elena says sliding down into her seat.

“So I’m throwing a little anti-curfew party at my new house. Starts in the fifth period, goes to whenever. Spread the word. You’re welcome to join Elena, if you’d like to bury the hatchet,” Rebekah says making her way over to us and setting a flyer on Elena’s desk.

“It’s a pretty enormous hatchet,” Elena says.

“Well, I’m feeling generous of spirit,” Rebekah responds.

“New house, huh? Did your brother finally kick you out?” Elena asks.

“He didn’t kick me out. I left,” Rebekah says.

“So you left the only person on earth that actually likes you?” Elena asks.

“Well, your boyfriend like me once. Actually a lot more than once,” Rebekah says.

“Why are you still in town, Rebekah? Don’t you have anywhere else to go?” Stefan asks.

“Well, history’s my favorite class. Actually, where is Mr. Saltzman? Oh, that’s right,” Rebekah says. “I killed him,” She whispers. Elena then throws a pencil at her but Rebekah quickly catches it and throws it right into Elena’s shoulder. Elena pulled it out and heads out of the classroom while Stefan follows her.

“Really Rebekah? You played that card?” I ask her. She just smiles and sits in her seat. I thankfully made it through the rest of the school day and Elena did as well. As I was heading out I received a text.

Tyler: Hey, can you come to my house?

Me: Yeh, I’ll be over there in a bit.

I head over to Tyler’s and as soon as I walk in I find two unknown men standing in the entryway.

“Hello?” I say confused as to where Tyler was.

“Hello...love,” I hear an all to familiar voice say. My heart stops as soon as I see Klaus walking out alive and well. I try to leave the house but Klaus quickly moves in front of me.

“Look, I came here because Tyler asked me to,” I say but not shifting my gaze from the floor.

“Actually I asked. But I figured you wouldn’t respond to my text and calls so I had Tyler do it,” He says.

“Ok, so why am I here? I’m sure you couldn’t forgive me after what I did? Did you ask me here to torture me? Kill me?” I ask but still looking at the floor.

“He won’t kill you,” Tyler says coming into the entryway. “He can’t make any more hybrids, probably why he asked you to come. So you could be on house arrest like me,” Tyler says.

“I’m not gonna be kept prisoner here by you, Klaus. Again,” I say and try to move past Klaus but he stops me. “What do you want from me? If you’re not gonna kill me or torture me, then what do you want?” I ask finally looking at Klaus.

“Can we just talk? Privately?” He whispers letting go of my arm. I hesitate for a little before turning around and gesturing for him to lead the way. He leads me up to a room on the second floor and the furthest room so no one can hear.

“So, what did you want to talk about?” I ask as soon as he closes the door. I could tell Klaus was hesitant, even looked like he wasn’t sure what to say.

“I--I don’t know. I just needed to talk with you,” He says quietly. Finally letting his guard down, no more arrogance, just him.

“You want to talk about why I did what I did to you. Why I did it if I truly still have feelings for you, huh?” I say and he just nods his head. “Look, Klaus. Ever since you came back into my life you have done nothing but hurt me and the people I care about. I stopped your heart so I could stop hurting. But I guess you know me better than anyone, that it didn’t help, it made it worse,” I say feeling a tear fall down my face. “But in the end, for me, it was the right thing to do so the people I care about would stop getting hurt, by you,” I say.

“Athena,” He puts his hands in mine. “What you did is unforgivable. But if you weren’t the love of my life, I would have killed you the moment I saw you again. On top of that, you are one of the last few hybrids I have left,” He says.

“Heh. Really? You’re gonna hold over the fact that you forced me into becoming a hybrid?” I ask pulling my hands out of his. 

“That’s not the point,” He drops his head. “My point is that...I do forgive you and I hope you forgive me,” He confesses.

“I--I don’t know if I could forgive you, Klaus. In fact I--I really don’t know what to feel. The sire bond is pulling me one way because of well...the effect it has. But my brain is telling me to feel something else and do other things,” I say.

“I’m not asking you to and I’m not going to use the sire bond on you...But I didn’t just call you here to talk to you or to have you watched because you’re one of my hybrids. I called you here because I really don’t want to see you hurt again, by anyone. I don’t want you out there without my protection. And I know what you’re gonna say...” He says.

“I can handle myself,” He says along with me.

“I’m serious Nik…” I start.

“You only call me Nik when you’re really sure or serious about something. Or when you really want to spill your feelings to me,” Klaus points out and chuckles.

“Stop. Look, I can handle myself. If I haven’t proved it to you already, then I’m not sure what will,” I say.

“I’m sure you can, Athena. But a lot of people know who you are and some even know about your involvement with my family. That you’re important to Elijah and me. You’re a target,” Klaus says as I sigh.

“Ok. How about this, I will hang out here today, mostly so Tyler isn’t bored out of his mind. And after that, I will check in with you periodically so you know that I’m ok. Ok?” I suggest. 

“I don’t know. I’d feel much more…” He starts.

“Nik. And yes I’m serious about this. If I get into any trouble. I promise to call you first. I’m sure you trust me enough to not use the sire bond on me. And I’m sure you know that I will truly never forgive for using it and taking away my free will. So do we have a deal?” I ask.

“Deal,” He says. “I just want you to know that you mean everything to me and I will protect you to the ends of the earth, mon petit tournesol,” Klaus says cupping my face.

“I know,” I say heading out of the room. Before I open the door Klaus quickly pulls me into a hug and a tight one at that. Instead of trying to pull away, I sink into his grasp. Even though I hated speaking to him or even being in his presence, I finally saw him fighting for me...us. He was actually putting in the work to show me how much he cared for me.

I head downstairs to the office where Tyler was hanging out and plop myself in the chair across from him. 

“Klaus give you a stern talking to?” Tyler chuckles.

“Yeh. I’m not sure how, but I convinced him to not keep me on house arrest. Sorry,” I respond.

“I’m sure it’s because you’re the only person he really cares about and listens to,” Tyler says sitting up.

“What do you mean? You know how many times he’s gone behind my back or ignored me?” I ask.

“Really? Everyone sees the way he looks at you. Not to mention, how protective he and Elijah are of you. Plus on top of that, he never seems to want to fight with you, therefore you convinced him to let you leave,” Tyler says.

“I guess I really can’t leave history behind. Well, be lucky that I’m willing to hang out with you today so you don’t go stir crazy,” I say leaning back into the chair. After a few minutes of hanging out, Klaus wanted to introduce me to my “bodyguards”. Once I got to know them I heard Tyler talking to Caroline. 

“Trust me. I am no fun right now,” Tyler says as I make my way into the entryway.

“Neither of us,” I say.

“You too?” Caroline asks.

“I guess I’m no exception. Go have fun at the party, I’ll make sure he doesn’t get into any trouble, alright?” I say.

“Okay,” She says sadly. I hug her before she leaves the house. We head back to the office where Tyler and I find Klaus sitting nonchalantly in the chair with his feet resting on the desk.

“She’s quite fetching, that Haley,” Klaus says clearly talking to Tyler.

“Where is she?” Tyler asks concerned.

“Oh, she had to run, but don’t worry. I had her take the back door so Caroline wouldn’t see,” Klaus says back to his arrogant self.

“Whatever you think you know--” Tyler says.

“I don’t know anything, but I’ve put together a pretty convincing picture. Why don’t you tell me where my imagination deviates from reality?” Klaus says as I roll my eyes. “You went off to the Appalachians to break my sire bond. There, you met a pack of werewolves, begged them for help. Among them was a girl. She was gorgeous, with the same animal instincts as you. Emotions ran high. Inhibitions ran low,” Klaus says circling behind Tyler.

“Stop it,” Tyler says.

“Then, in a moment of weakness, the thick sexual tension became something much more real,” Klaus says eyeing me.

“I said stop!” Tyler yells turning towards him.

“And Caroline has no idea,” Klaus says coldly.

“I thought you couldn’t sink any lower, Klaus,” I scoff and sit on the couch as I notice Tyler’s look of horror plastered on his face. Before anyone has a chance to say anything else, Tyler’s phone starts to go off and Klaus goes to pick it up.

“Hello, Damon,” Klaus says.

“Klaus, where’s Tyler?” Damon asks over the phone.

“Tyler’s otherwise occupied making big decisions about honesty and whatnot. Is there anything I can do?” Klaus asks.

“I’m going after the vampire hunter, so if he’d like to join…” Damon says.

“He wouldn’t. I, however...Oh, and Athena would you like to join?” Klaus asks.

“Oh...no it’s just us two if you’re coming,” Damon says.

“Come on...how fun would it be having Athena and her two ex-lovers take down a big bad vampire hunter? What do you say?” Klaus smiles devilishly. 

“I promised Tyler...AND you that I’d stay here,” I respond.

“I never said you had to follow my orders. So...it’s your choice,” Klaus says. 

“Just go,” Tyler says barely loud enough.

“Fine,” I say. I gather my stuff as Klaus speaks to Damon about where to meet. Once Klaus and I make it to the hospital. We find Meradith is there as well and Jeremy is bringing the hunter here. Damon explains the plan to us and we get into our spots.

I hid behind the shelves of supplies as we wait for the hunter to enter. First Meridith walks in and out through another door, soon after the hunter walks in. He clearly is cautious as he’s slowly making his way through the room.

“Is the hospital really the best place for a germophobe?” He asks.

“Did I say that I was a germophobe? Pfft, sorry. I meant vampire,” Damon says getting a rouse out of him. The hunter doesn’t hesitate one moment to pull his gun out, but Damon’s little bombs quickly do their work by shooting arrows into his arm. As the hunter tries to grab the gun he dropped the next arrow is shot from the other side.

“Stings doesn’t it?” Damon asks.

The hunter goes for his gun once more but Klaus quickly kicks it away as we round the corner, “Hello, mate,” Klaus says.

“Keep it up, buddy. We’ll be scraping you off the ceiling for hours,” I say while the hunter tugs as the arrows. I notice both Damon and Klaus smirk at my comment, clearly, they’re impressed or something.

“You three are gonna kill me anyway,” The hunter says.

“Well, let’s not be too hasty. I feel like we’re just getting to know each other,” Klaus says.

“And I would love to hear your life story. I’m sure it couldn’t be better than mine, but let’s see,” I say bending down to his level.

“Let’s start with the basics. Where are you from? What do you know? Maybe you can cue me in on this greater evil because I’ve fought this guy,” Damon says pointing to Klaus as I stand up. “And there’s nothing more evil than that,” Damon finishes.

“Yeah, truth be told, I’m as evil as it gets,” Klaus says taking the paper from Damon’s hands. 

“He’s the biggest threat you could ever face,” I add.

“I’m not telling you anything. You think if you kill me, it’s gonna be over? There’s another waiting to take my place,” The hunter says.

“See, this is what I like to hear--vague threats, ominous prophecies, disappearing tattoos,” Damon says, and that catches the hunter’s attention as well as having Klaus’ smile fall.

“What do you mean, ‘tattoos’?” Klaus asks, now even more intrigued.

“Don’t bother, you can’t see the damn thing,” Damon says. Klaus then leans forward getting right in the hunter’s face.

“There’s more to you than meets the eye, isn’t there?” Klaus asks. The hunter doesn’t respond and tries to stake Klaus. “Nice try, but I’m faster than your average vampire,” Klaus says after he catches the hunter’s hand. He turns his hand the other way and takes the stake out of his hand. 

“What’s it mean?” I ask as we study the marking on the stake.

“You’re one of the five,” Klaus says clearly shaken a bit.

“The what?” Damon asks.

“I’m faster than the average hunter,” The hunter says before I see fire flash before my eyes. I feel Klaus’ arms wrap around me and the force of the explosion pushes us back. 

“You ok?” He asks as the rubble settles. I notice the Hunter laying unconscious next to us and look at Klaus confused.

“Yeh, I’m fine. You?” I ask back.

“I’m good,” Klaus says helping me up. We head out of the room, but instead of meeting up with Damon, he has me help him take the hunter to his trailer. Once we finished laying him down, Klaus notices a few texts and calls from Stefan on his phone. 

“What is it?” I ask confused. 

“Elena and Stefan need my help for some reason,” Klaus says before heading out of the trailer, confusing me. I follow him and we go to the Salvatore house.

“You came,” Stefan says as we enter his room.

“I did. And for future reference, one voice-mail is just as effective as 9,” Klaus says slightly annoyed. “What’s wrong, love?” Klaus says to Elena as I sit next to her.

“She has werewolf venom in her system. You know you’re the only one that can heal her, Klaus. Please,” Stefan asks.

“And what would you have done if I was no longer here? Hmm? If you and your friends had succeeded in ridding the world of me? Let’s play that game for a moment, shall we?” Klaus asks.

“Let’s not,” I shoot up a look at the boys, but they ignore me.

“Whatever you want from me--” Stefan starts.

“I don’t want anything from you. Her, on the other hand…” Klaus says taking my spot by Elena. “If you had told me a few hours ago, I wouldn’t have cared a lick about her dying. But as it turns out…” He says and bites his wrist. “You may be of use to me after all,” He says and feeds Elena his blood. As soon as he was done, I walked him out of the house. 

“Hey. I know you have your own intentions. But thanks for saving Elena. It means a lot to me,” I say after closing the front door.

“I did take that into account. I want you to know that I’m trying to make amends for my mistakes with you,” He says. 

“Well, thanks for that. I guess I’ll uh...see you later,” I say and start to head back inside.

“Athena,” Klaus stops me. “With this hunter running around. I’d be much more comfortable if you stayed with me,” Klaus says.

“I’ll be fine. I mean he’s not even running around anymore and how does one little hunter make Klaus Mikaelson so scared?” I ask confused.

“It’s a long story. Will you please just stay with me?” He asks quietly.

“I--I don’t know, Klaus. I just don’t think it’d be a good play, considering you have Tyler on lockdown already,” I say dropping my head.

“Humor me this, okay?” He says and I nod my head. “You stay with me at my mansion for the nights. You can do what you want during the day, stay with me, or go off with your friends. I just can’t lose you again, especially to a hunter,” He says.

“Do you promise not to use the sire bond?” I ask. 

“Promise,” He says.

“Then I’ll stay with you for the nights,” I say.

“Great,” He smiles. I quickly head into my room at the Salavtores and gather my things. “Now let’s go so I can handle this hunter,” He says as I walk out the door and I follow him back to the trailer. He has me wait outside while he talks to the hunter. Before I know it he comes out with the hunter unconscious over his shoulders. “Come on, love. We’ve got work to do,” He says.

We head back to his mansion and Klaus quickly has his little hybrids take the hunter and chain him up. Once they were finished, Klaus takes me upstairs and into one of the many rooms that were open.

“This is the room I had set up for you. I figured you’d still want your own,” Klaus explains opening the door to the room. As I walk into the room I find it to be well laid out. Not only did it have the essentials and an en suite bathroom, but he had also set up a little art area.

“Wow, you really went all out,” I say setting my stuff on the bed.

“I figured you’d enjoy the art area,” He chuckled. 

“It’s great,” I say.

“Uhhh….well. My room is just down the hall if you need me,” Klaus says after a few moments of silence. “Night, Athena,”

“Night, Klaus,” I say and he closes the door.

Once he left I shuffle through my bag and change into my pj’s. As I was about to lay down I find a note attached to the vase of sunflowers as well as a little box below it. 

“I’ll always love you, mon petit tournesol,” I read.

I open the box and find the bracelet Klaus had given me years ago, that I left behind when I left him. I was a custom made bracelet, of the moon phases, that he had made for me. It was wrapped around a piece of paper. I unrolled it to find another sketch he had done. This time it was a hand holding a sunflower to another. The empty hand had the bracelet drawn on it, signifying it was me. 

I hesitated to put the bracelet on, but I remember that it meant a lot to me. He not only had it made to give to me but gave it to me as a way so I could never forget my roots as a Dumont werewolf. I put it on and headed off to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I hope you enjoyed the touching covos between Klaus and Athena! Thanks for reading!


	3. 25. Finally Free

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post Date: 11.24.20
> 
> Word count: 1.7k
> 
> Based off: 04x05 “The Killer”

The next day I head over to Tyler Lockwood’s so I could finally break my sire bond. Or at least ask if he could help me.   
“Hey, what’s up?” Tyler asks as he opens the door.

“Hey. I was wondering if today was a good day to maybe…” I start. “Break my sire bond?” I whisper noticing the other hybrids were still around. Even though they may not say anything to Klaus.

“Uhhh….yeah. I don’t have anything else planned today. You haven’t met Haley yet, right?” He asks.

“Nope, just whatever Klaus has said. Which for the record. I don’t think you would ever hurt Caroline. Cuz if you did, then I’d have to hurt you,” I say.

“You know I wouldn’t. Let me just go grab her,” He says and heads upstairs. He came back down with a tall dark-haired woman. 

“So you’re the one Klaus is so entranced with?” She asks, making it down the final step.

“The one and only,” I sigh.

“Athena wants to break her sire bond. You think we could help her Haley?” Tyler asks.

“For sure. Anyone who wants to get away from that devil. I will gladly help,” She says.

“Cool, does today work?” I ask.

“Yeh, “ She says.

“Ok. So what does it take?” I ask.

“You may not like this part,” Tyler says.

“You have to transform and break your bones 100 times. So you’re no longer grateful for the pain that Klaus took away,” Haley explains.

“Alright,” You sigh. “Let’s get started then,” You say.

“Well, we need to find somewhere to do it. I don’t think anyone wouldn’t be concerned about a girl screaming,” Tyler says. 

“Uhhh...I know of a barn close to the edge of town. Out in the middle of nowhere almost. Would that work?” I suggest. 

“Yeh, that should be perfect,” Haley says.

“Alright, let’s go,” Tyler says.

Tyler went and grabbed some chains and then we all headed out. I directed Tyler to the barn. Once we arrived Tyler and Haley set up the chains as I prepared myself. Once I was ready, Tyler locked the chains onto my wrists. 

“Whenever you're ready,” Tyler says. I nod and start my transformation. I feel the rush of pain coming over my body as I start to break every bone in my body. I continue to do so for what felt like hours. And I guess it had been since I noticed the sun was setting. After what felt like even more hours, I finally felt no need to seek acceptance from Klaus. 

“You done?” Tyler asks, noticing that I had stopped transforming.

“Yeh...yeh. I don’t feel loyal or the need to seek acceptance from Klaus anymore,” I say. Once I had calmed down, we all packed up and headed back to Tylers. As soon as we got back, I was getting a call from Klaus.

“Hello, Love,” Klaus says as I answer my phone.

“Hey. I promise I’ll be back at yours soon,” I say knowing that’s exactly what he’d want to hear.

“Actually, darling. I have some business to deal with in Italy. I’ll be home as soon as that’s finished. Until then, I need you to stay at Tyler’s,” He says.

“Well, lucky you. I’m already at his,” I say.

“Good, give him my regards. Bye, love,” Klaus says and hangs up.

“So what did he want?” Tyler asks.

“Klaus is going to Italy for whatever reason. He wants me to stay here,” I explain.

“Well, I guess we got no choice,” Tyler says.

“Well, actually we do. I mean we’re no longer sired to him. But you’re not wrong. There are hybrids here that still are,” I whisper. 

“Well, you’re open to any room here I guess,” Tyler says.

“Thanks,” I say and head upstairs and find a room. 

Once I settled in, I found myself staying awake. Thinking about breaking the sire bond. Even though I no longer felt the need to satisfy Klaus’ every command, even if he didn’t try to use it on me. I still found myself thinking about him. Thinking about how I felt about him. The feelings, what I felt for Klaus, weren’t because of the sire bond. I felt them because I really did still love him. And that wasn’t something that could just disappear, something I could erase. 

The next day I wake up fairly late after being tired from breaking my bones over and over again. I walk downstairs to find Tyler and another one of Klaus’ hybrids talking. Although, he had also broken his sire bond.

“Look, man, this guy is dangerous. He’s highly trained, he’s armed--” Tyler says as I walk up to Haley.

“What’s going on?” I ask her.

“Klaus asked Dean to get the hunter and Dean thinks he can handle himself,” Haley explains.

“This is a bad idea,” Tyler says walking after Dean as you follow.

“I agree. I’ve talked to this guy. He’s no ordinary hunter,” I say to Dean.

“What makes this guy so scary?” Dean asks.

“The fact that this guy has been hunting vampires almost his entire life. And he doesn’t just have some rinky dinky stakes,” I explain. 

“I’ll be fine. Klaus asked me to, I have to do it or he’ll know I’m not sired,” Dean explains.

“Dean, you don’t need to do this,” Haley says walking in.

“Stay out of this, Haley. I’m going,” Dean responds.

“Just listen to her, man. It’s suicide. Klaus told you to take care of Connor by yourself, and you can’t even fight back? You have to use ‘non-lethal force’? What the hell is that?” Tyler asks as I notice Caroline walk in.

“Klaus gave me a direct order,” Dean explains.

“It’s too dangerous. That maniac already killed Nate,” Haley says.

“You’re not a hybrid, you don’t know what it’s like. Klaus asks for something. You do it,” Dean explains. Haleys gives Tyler a look and I notice Caroline’s death stare behind them.

“Look...I’m a hybrid. Athena’s a hybrid. I used to do everything Klaus said. But I don’t anymore. You don’t have to, either,” Tyler says.

“You think you can stand up to Klaus? Here, prove it,” Dean says and hands Tyler his phone.

“Tyler, don’t…” Caroline says. But he just returns with a look of ‘I have to’. Tyler dials Klaus’ number and waits for him to pick up as Dean has a smile plastered on his face.

“Hello?” Klaus says answering his phone.

“Hey, Klaus,” Tyler says.

“Tyler. I hope you’re not causing problems,” Klaus says.

“I can do whatever I want. I’m not sired to you anymore,” Tyler says.

“Fair enough. Though I do happen to know your little secret about your time in Appalachia. What was your friend’s name? Haley, was it? You’d probably prefer I kept that to myself. I’m sorry, mate. Are you going to answer or should I just assume you’re back to being...How did you phrase it? Oh, yes. My little bitch,” Klaus says as I realize how that sounded to Caroline. Before Tyler hung up, I gestured for him to give me the phone, he reluctantly hands it to me.

“Klaus. You know I thought I told you to stop hurting my friends. Empty threats included,” I say into the phone.

“Well, hello love. I’m just merely stating a fact. Nothing wrong in that,” Klaus says.

“Whatever. Tyler doesn’t need to do anything you say, so stop trying to find ways to make him,” I say before hanging up.

“Do whatever the hell you want,” Tyler says as I hand Dean his phone back.

“That’s it? You just back down?!” Haley asks as Tyler heads out of the room and Haley follows. The next thing I know, Dean is leaving the house, Tyler has disappeared somewhere in the house, and Caroline is standing in the room like a statue.

“Caroline, I know Tyler. You do too. I’m sure nothing happened between them, he would never hurt you like that,” I tell her.

“You sure? I mean why else would Klaus say what he said?” She asks.

“It’s Klaus. He’ll say and do whatever he has to. Trust me I’ve fallen for it too, sire bond or not,” I tell her. She just nods before heading to wherever Tyler and Haley went off to. I followed after her.

We walk in to find them in eachother arms. I may have spoken too early. “I can’t believe Dean’s gone. We could have saved him,” Haley says. As soon as they caught sight of us walking in, they backed off from eachother.

“I apologize. Am I intruding?” Caroline asks clearly annoyed.

“Caroline, it’s not like that,” Tyler says.

“I keep waiting for you to make up some dumb story so at least I can call you a liar. Is that now?” Caroline says.

“I’ll let you two talk,” Haley says.

“Thank you, how big of you!” Caroline says getting more irritated. I follow her wanting to give them their privacy.

“There’s really nothing going on between you two, right?” I ask Haley as soon as we got far enough away.

“No! I would never,” Haley says.

“Thank god. I was gonna have to hurt Tyler if that was the case. No one messes with my best friends,” I say.

“Klaus included? Cause that doesn’t seem to be going well,” Haley says.

“Well...Klaus is a special case and takes way more convincing than I thought,” I respond.

“I thought you were like, special to him. I’ve heard the rumors of the Dumont wolf who melted his cold heart. And I figure that’s you, considering I’ve also heard that there’s only one Dumont wolf left and you’re the only wolf with the last name Dumont around here,” Haley states, striking a chord with me.

“Like I said. He’s a special case,” I respond, not wanting to say much.

“But I mean what makes you so special to him? I mean it can’t be because you’re the last Dumont wolf. The last of your kind, like him, maybe he’s a sucker for a sob story?” Haley suggests.

“Why don’t you ask him yourself. Why are you so interested in my family history anyway?” I ask more irritated.

“Because. I was abandoned like you. I don’t have a family. So it intrigues me knowing that we both have a similar story,” Haley says. 

“You know what. I’m done with this conversation. I say heading back up to the room I was staying in.

For the rest of the night, I just hang out in the room. Not wanting to deal with anyone or interact with anyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So Athena finally found out that Haley is an orphan. How do you think this will impact their relationship? And she finally broke her sire bond, now Klaus really doesn’t have control over her. School is still a bit crazy, but I had this one done, so I thought I’d post it. I hope you all enjoyed and thanks for reading!


	4. 26. Fallen Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Word count: 2k
> 
> Based off: 04x06 “We All Go a Little Mad Sometimes”

I wake up the next morning to find multiple calls from Elena. I call her back and she answers and starts speaking so quickly I couldn’t understand.

“Ok. Ok. Just calm down,” I say.

“Can you just get here as soon as possible?” She asks frantically.

“Yeh, I’ll be there as soon as I can,” I say and hang up. 

I get ready as fast as I could and headed to Elena’s. As I made my way into her house, I find her walking back and forth freaking out. As I make it further into her house I find Jeremy laying on the couch, although it does not look like he’s asleep, more like unconscious. Damon comes in almost as soon as I make my way to Elena.

“What happened?” I ask ignoring that Damon had arrived.

“I uh couldn’t sleep so I came down to get some milk. And um I saw the hunter and next thing I know I stab Jeremy in the neck with a knife,” Elena explains.

“Ok well, at least he still has the Gilbert ring,” I respond.

“I can’t believe this happened. What--what am I going to say to him?” Elena says freaking out.

“Thanks for not ditching the family ring after it drove Ric crazy?” Damon suggests.

“Damon…” I say and look at him annoyed. 

“You should have called Stefan,” Damon says, clearly unsure of why he was there.

“I don’t want to talk to him. He’s been lying to me and hiding things from me. He compelled Jeremy to forget god knows what,” Elena explains.

“In all fairness, I mean, I think you killing him kind of trumps that. I mean, you should have called Stefan,” Damon suggests once more.

“I don’t trust him right now, Damon,” Elena says.

And just like on cue, “Hey,” Stefan says walking into Elena’s house.

“P.S. I called Stefan,” Damon says as I roll my eyes.

“What happened? Why didn’t you call me?” Stefan asks.

“I just--I need to go upstairs and shower. Clean all the blood off my hands,” Elena says and walks off.

“Could any of you listen to Elena, once?” I ask before Jeremy wakes up.

“Welcome back. How you feeling?” Stefan asks. 

“What happened?” Jeremy asks.

“Long story. Buy the E-book,” Damon says and walks to the kitchen. I head into the kitchen after Damon and help him clean up the blood staining the floor. 

“You know you could be a little more sensitive right?” I tell him.

“Ehhh…” Damon says.

“Damon… it’s her brother,” I give him an annoyed look.

“Where’d Jeremy go?” Damon asks as Stefan walks in.

“School. Bonnie has him volunteering for some occult exhibit,” Stefan explains.

“Or maybe he didn’t want to linger in a house where his sister just jammed a knife in his neck,” Damon says.

“It’s Klaus,” Stefan says looking down at his ringing phone.

“Ooh, time to face the music, pay the piper, dance with the devil,” Damon says.

“You know, I’m glad you find this amusing. If he finds out I told you about the cure, he’ll kill both of us,” Stefan says confusing me.

“Quit avoiding him. You’re being shady. Shady people get outed,” Damon says as Stefan answers his phone.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Stefan says.

“Well, I can’t imagine why what with you ruining all my plans for a hybrid-filled future,” Klaus says.

“Well, it wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t sworn me to secrecy,” Stefan says.

“Life’s full of ifs, Stefan. Let’s extenuate the positives, shall we? The hunter was one of the five. We’ll find another. It may take centuries, but we’ve got nothing but time, right?” Klaus says.

“You’re using your calm voice today. Who’s getting killed?” Stefan asks.

“Not you, if that’s what you’re worried about. But I am concerned about your beloved. Have the hallucinations started yet?” Klaus says as the three of us exchange looks. 

“What do you know about that?” Stefan asks.

“I’ll tell you. Where are you?” Klaus asks back.

“I’m at her house,” Stefan says.

“How convenient. So am I,” Klaus says before we hear a knock on the door. Stefan quickly moves and heads outside. 

A few minutes later Elena comes down looking like she saw a ghost. “No!” She says before running outside. 

Damon and I follow her but we find that she had been whisked away by Klaus and Stefan was standing alone on the sidewalk. Stefan explained to Damon and me about the hunter’s curse, and about the cure to me. I call Bonnie knowing that she was our only luck in finding Elena. Once she arrived we explain what happened.

“You lost her?!” Bonnie asks.

“Well, ‘lost’ is a very strong word. We technically don’t know where she is,” Damon says.

“We do know that Klaus took her,” I say.

“I’m more worried about what Klaus said about the hunter’s curse,” Stefan says.

“How does Klaus even know about this?” Bonnie asks.

“How does Klaus know anything? The guy’s like a billion years old,” Damon says.

“He said it was a witch’s curse,” Stefan says.

“You know if I could do anything to help I would, But I--,” Bonnie says.

“But nothing. Wave your magic wand, hocus pocus, be gone, hunter, ghostess, whatever,” Damon says.

“The spirits won’t let me do the magic I need to break the curse. But I can ask Shane for help. He knows everything about everything,” Bonnie explains.

“Great. You two do your thing,” Stefan says.

“Where you going?” I ask Stefan while he walks away.

“I’m gonna get her back,” Stefan says.

“I’ll come with you. Maybe he’ll listen to me for once,” I say and follow Stefan outside.

“I don’t need help getting Elena back,” Stefan says sitting on his motorcycle.

“Maybe not. But I am good back up. At least if he listens to me. We might have a better chance, than if you go by yourself,” I explain. 

Stefan takes some time to think, “Alright hop on,” Stefan says and starts his motorcycle. He stops just past the town clock tower and makes a call to Caroline. We then make our way to Tyler so they can explain what’s going on.  
“Haley is the one that helped me break the sire bond. She showed me what to do. How to help. When she showed up here, I thought it was just a coincidence but it turns out she’s been helping one of them. Her friend Chris. And she came to help us get the rest of them out from under Klaus,” Tyler explains.

“Including me,” I say waving my hand.

“So...Are you telling me that Chris and you aren’t sired anymore?” Stefan asks looking at me.

“That’s exactly what he’s telling you,” Caroline confirms. We all then come up with a plan and of course, I’m the one who goes to talk to Klaus, but what did I expect. Stefan, Tyler, and Caroline head out as I head to the Mystic Grill where Klaus was.

“Place looks pretty good considering your hybrid got blown up in it,” I say walking up behind Klaus whose drinking at the bar.

“Athena. To what do I owe the pleasure? You never seek me out on your own, I tend to have to come to you, even if you’re staying with me,” Klaus says.

“I want you to give Elena back,” I say standing by the bar.

“Ahh. They sent you to sweet talk me. Well, good form, But I’m afraid I can’t do it,” Klaus responds.

“Why not?” I ask.

“She needs my help,” Klaus says as I scoff at his statement. “Look, I’m not going to burden you with the gory details. I know you’d rather be doing other things, painting or hanging out with your friends,” Klaus says.  
“Can’t do that, if Elena isn’t around,” I respond.

“Can I at least offer you a drink?” Klaus asks. 

“Yeah, thanks,” I say knowing it’ll keep him out of his house longer.

“How uh… was your trip to Italy? I assume it was for business, Klaus Michaelson doesn’t do vacations,” I say.

“It was very productive. I’d be glad to tell you what I’ve been up to, soon though,” He says as I feel a buzz from my phone. I look down to find a text from Tyler sayings that Elena had escaped. And another text from Damon saying that Jeremy is the key to stopping the hallucinations.

“So here’s the thing. I didn’t just come here to try to get you to release Elena,” I say.

“You don’t say,” Klaus says with a smile plastered on his face.

“I came here to distract you so that Stefan could go to your house and break her out,” I start as his smile falls. “Which he did and don’t get mad, but then he lost her,” I finish and Klaus doesn’t hesitate one moment to move from his seat. “Klaus!” I say.

“Athena. You’re beautiful and the love of my life. But if you don’t stop talking, I will kill you,” Klaus says surprising me.

“They figured out how to stop the hallucinations,” I say stopping Klaus in his tracks.

“Ok. You have 10 seconds to tell me,” Klaus says with haste in his voice.

“You have to find a potential hunter and have them kill another vampire. The catch is...it’s little Gilbert,” I explain.

“Well, this leaves us no choice. Let’s find us a little Gilbert and a hybrid,” Klaus says.

“Damon already contacted him. We’ll meet them at Tyler’s,” I say.

“Well, let’s not waste any time,” Klaus says taking my hand in his and pulling me with him. We make it to Tyler’s house and go over the plan. 

I watch as Klaus walks into Tylers and the next thing I hear is Klaus yelling. As the hybrid was starting to make his way out of Tylers, Stefan rushes in, staking him. And soon after Jeremy follows in and finishes the hybrid off. I follow in after and see Jeremy standing over the body, Klaus with a big smile on his face, and Tyler and Haley standing in shock. 

“Alright, let’s go home,” Klaus says grabbing my arm.

“No, I’m staying here,” I tug my arm away. Klaus doesn’t try to stop me, but instead just leaves.

The next morning I wake up to find Haley asleep on the couch and Tyler sitting there with a bottle in hand. 

“Tyler?” I ask walking into the room.

“It’s just us. Paying our respects to Chris,” He says and takes a sip of the alcohol.

“We didn’t have a choice,” I explain, sitting in the chair next to him.

“I told him we had his back. I told him if he helped us, he’d be free,” Tyler explains.

“We needed to help our friend,” I say.

“Yeah, we helped our friend by handing over another friend,” Tyler says. I sat in silence not knowing how to respond. “Chris was a friend. He’s like us. Part of my pack. All he wanted to do was be unsired by that disgusting, piece of...How did you even get Klaus to agree to give up one of his hybrids?” Tyler asks. 

“Well, I didn’t have much to offer nor do I want anything to really do with him but…” I say.

“I agreed to go on a date with him,” Caroline says walking into the room. Tyler stands up facing Caroline. “I just thought that it might help keep up the ruse between you and Haley,” Caroline explains. Tyler doesn’t respond but instead, he throws the alcohol bottle against the wall, scaring both Caroline and me.

“What the hell is going on?” Haley asks waking up.

“Nothing. Nothing at all. Just celebrating the life of a fallen hybrid friend,” Tyler says shifting his eyes between Caroline and me.

I decided to leave Hayley and Tyler alone for the rest of the day and go check up on Elena. 

“Hey, how are you feeling?” I ask her as we walk into the kitchen. 

“Better now that the hunter is gone. Thank you for your help,” Elena says.

“No problem. I’d hate to lose you too,” I say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This is just a filler, I hope you all enjoyed! Thanks for reading.


	5. 27. Miss Mystic Falls

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post Date: 12.22.20
> 
> Word count: 1.9k
> 
> Based off: 04x07 “My Brother’s Keeper”

The next morning I woke up lying in Elena’s bed. I must’ve fallen asleep at her place. 

“Hey, I figured I’d let you sleep a bit longer,” Elena says walking out of the bathroom. 

“Little longer until what?” I ask groggily.

“Until we promised Caroline we’d help set up for Miss Mystic Falls,” Elena says.

“Ugh. Do we have to? I don’t even want to attend. I wasn’t even here in the previous years,” I groan.

“We promised Caroline and you’re a founding Family member, you have to,” Elena explains.

“Ugh...fine,” I say and get up. I finish getting ready and we head over to Tylers, where the pageant is taking place. After Caroline gets off the phone she tells Elena and me to set up some flowers on the tables.

“I’m your best friend, and I would never pick sides, but are you sure that this is what you want? Because Stefan is your soul mate. Sorry. Picking sides,” Caroline says making her way to us.

“It’s not like I don’t love Stefan anymore, but I can’t deny that every since I turned, my feelings for Damon have become more intense,” Elena explains.

“Yeah, I know. Stefan filled me in on all the gory Damon details,” Caroline says.

“He did? Is he ok?” Elena asks.

“No. He’s heartbroken,” Caroline says without remorse.  
“Well, what was I supposed to do? Lie to him?” Elena says.

“No, but you weren’t supposed to let Damon weasel his was into your newbie vampire heart,” Caroline says.

“Well, he did, and that’s exactly what I am--confused. I need to figure out what these feelings actually mean,” Elena says as I nod my head in agreement.

“Excuse me. I’m a little lost. I’m here to interview contestants,” A man says coming up to us.

“You’re Professor Shane?” Elena asks.

“Yeah, that’s right-- Professor by day, pageant judge by other day. In spite of being absurdly unqualified, I’m apparently awarding a scholarship?” He says.

“Inside by the parlor,” Caroline says.

“Right in here?” He asks pointing towards the house and Caroline confirms.

“All right. I’ll just follow the scent of hair spray and world domination,” He says and walks away. 

“He’s the one who told Damon how to break the Hunter’s curse,” I say.

“He’s also the one that has bonnie so obsessed with practicing magic that she bailed on pageant prep,” Caroline says.

“And now he’s judging Miss Mystic Falls?” I ask confused.

“Jack of all trades or kind of creepy?” Elena asks as well. Caroline tells us to finish setting up the tables as she continues to make sure everyone else is doing their jobs. 

“So what’s going on with you and Klaus?” Elena asks.

“Do you really care? I mean he’s hell-bent on destroying your life,” I say.

“Humor me. You’re my best friend, I just wanna know what’s going on in your love life,” She chuckles.

“Ok...ok love life is a strong phrase. I’m not particularly in the mood to talk to him. He kidnapped you and then forced me to let him kill one of his hybrids, Tyler and Haely’s friend. So I’m trying to avoid him,” I explain.

“You’ve got some fair points,” Elena says.

“Right now. I just want to get through this thing as a founding family and deal with him later. If he’s still going to be so irrational, then I’m thinking of moving back into my place. It just seems all too weird to stay with him and it’s kinda a conflict of interest. I’d rather stick with you guys, I honestly have no idea why I agreed to even stay with him,” I explain.

“Must’ve been a spur of the moment thing,” She says.

“Honestly, I think I did it just to get him off my back,” I chuckle. 

“Anyways I think were done here. We should go get ready,” Elena suggests. 

“Yeh, the faster this goes by the faster I can leave,” I say.

“It’s not gonna be that bad, come on,” Elena says as we walk into the house. We head into one of the many rooms where our dresses were hanging up. I head into the bathroom and change into my seafoam colored party dress. After we were all ready, we head over to the contestants to check up on them.

April holds up the red and blue dress to herself, asking for help on which dress to wear.”Blue,” Elena and Caroline say almost simultaneously. 

“Really the blue seems a little safe,” April says.

“Safe is good when it comes to the judges,” Elena says and Caroline agrees.

“Gracie Lockwood had a 3 foot slit her year and practically got laughed off the court,” Caroline says.

“She got my vote,” Damon says from the doorway.

“Get out lurker,” Caroline says chucking something at him.

“Where’s Professor Shane?” He asks.

“Check the judge’s table,” Caroline says before shutting the door on him.

“Red one, definitely,” Damon says after stopping the door.

“We’ve already agreed that the red one’s a little bit too showy,” Caroline says.

“It’s a pageant. That’s the whole point,” Damon says.

“Did you win Miss Mystic last year? No. I don’t think you did,” Caroline says.  
“Neither did Elena, and she wore blue,” Damon says.

“Nobody cares what you think,” I say.

“I care,” April says. 

“See? April cares. Red, right Elena?” Damon asks.

“The red is pretty,” Elena says clearly disregarding what she said earlier.

“And my work here is done,” Damon says and walks away.

“Uh, what happened to 30 seconds ago when you hated the red one? What happened to ‘safe is good’?” Caroline asks.

“Whichever one you want to wear, April,” Elena says after a few moments of confusion.

“What just happened?” Caroline asks me after Elena leaves the room.

“Beats me, I may have never done a pageant but I think the blue is better too,” I say.

“Thank you. Anyways the pageant is about to start, we should get down there and April, you should finish getting ready,” Caroline says and we head down to the backyard.

“Welcome to this season’s Miss Mystic Falls. We are excited to showcase our most outstanding community leaders in the making,” Carol Lockwood says as we make our way into the courtyard. 

I meet with a few people who were happy to see me come in my role as a the only founding family member of the Dumont’s. Thankfully Caroline’s speech was able to let me escape the pain of pleasing people. 

“Hi, everyone. I’m Caroline Forbes. As the reigning Miss Mystic Falls, it is my honour to introduce this year’s Miss Mystic Court!” Caroline says and starts to introduce the girls and their escorts. I clapped along with the crowd as Matt comes up to Elena and I. 

“Have you seen Jeremy?” He asks.

“He’s probably with the escorts,” Elena says.

“Caroline told me to wrangle the escorts. He’s not here,” Matt says. “Did he tell either of you about his nightmares?” Matt asks.

“What nightmares?” Elena asks. 

“I don;t know why Jeremy would say anything to me,” I say. 

“The ones where he kills you, Elena,” Matt says taking both of us by surprise.

“I’ll find hin, but--” Elena says.

“April’s about to get abandoned,” I point out.

“I got this,” Matt says before making his way to the escort area. The escorts begin to dance as I notice Caroline making her way to us.

“Hey, what’s with the last minute escort change? Where is Jeremy?” Caroline whispers.

“I’m calling him right now. He’s not picking up,” Elena says as Damon walks up to us.

“Do the math. Emo teen. Open bar. It’s fine,” Damon says as I shoot him a look.

“Matt said that Jeremy’s been having nightmares about killing vampires and he’s been hiding it from me,” Elena explains as both Caroline and Damon look at us confused. 

“Relax, I’m sure he’s fine,” Damon brushes off.

“I don’t know. I have a bad feeling,” Elena says.

“If i’m not worried, you shouldn’t be worried. Let it go. I’ll go look for him,” Damon offers.

“Ok, Elena. You go home, i’m gonna start asking around here,” Caroline says.

“Maybe Damon’s right. Maybe he grabbed a bottle from the bar and snuck off to the woods,” Elena says.

“No. Damon’s never right,” I say.

“Damon is sneaky and manipulative and rude, but Athena is right and Damon is never right. How can you not see that?” Caroline adds.

“I don’t know, but why do I think that you won’t hesitate to tell me?” Elena asks.

“Fine. Friend-tervention. I think your so-called feelings for Damon are really starting to cloud your judgement, and I don’t like it. Don’t you agree Athena?” Caroline says.

“Look, this isn’t something I should be dragged into, but I think that in some cases, yes. Your feelings do cloud your judgement sometimes,” I respond.

“Oh, and the thought of the two of you really makes me want to barf,” Caroline adds as Klaus saunters up to us.

“Easy, Love. You’re making a scene,” Klaus says.

“Wow. Caroline, Thank you for making this very difficult time so much easier,” Elena says before walking off.

“How did I become the bad guy?” Caroline asks. 

“Let’s get you a drink. I’ll tell you all about being the bad guy,” Klaus says to Caroline.

“Well, while you two do that, I’ll ask around for Jeremy,” I say and head off. I look around and ask people if they’ve seen Jeremy, but no one had a clue. I noticed Tyler looking at both Klaus and Caroline on the hill having a drink. 

“Hey, have you seen Jeremy?” I ask but no response. “Ok, I get if you’re mad at me. But it’s not like we had a choice,” I say.

“Why did you let her agree to a date with him? What he wasn’t happy enough with you so he had to ask Caroline?” Tyler says clearly upset.

“She’s the one who offered. She knew I wouldn’t want to do anything with him, so she stepped in before I could even get a word out. Tyler, you know I would’ve taken the deal instead,” I explain.

“And you still let a a hybrid die, our friend,” He whispers.  
“Tyler, I was outnumbered three to one. It was either let him die or Elena,” I whisper back. 

“Whatever just don’t let it happen again,” Tyler says and walks away. I follow him until Damon stops us. 

“Oh, hey. How do those two know each other?” Damon asks looking to Profesor Shane and Haley. 

“They don’t. Paranoid much?” Tyler asks.

“The council just got burned to a crisp. Some mysterious hunters just blew through town, and this guy justbhappens to know everything about everything. Yes, paranoid,” Damon responds before walking off. A few moments later Carol Lockwood, Caroline, Elena and the contestants make their way to the stage for the announcement of the winner.

As the party started to die down, I said goodbye to a few of the people I met and found Haley anf Tyler on the stairs looking at Klaus and Caroline. “The sooner we get rid of this guy the better,” Tyler says.

“And I’m the key,” I say kneeling next to them.

“Says who?” Haley asks.

“Well, I’m just about the only person he listens to, you said it yourself, Tyler. Which means if he goes then I go,” I say. 

“That’s not true,” Tyler says.

“I highly doubt that. I know he won’t leave town without me. He’s already pissed enough I was able to get away the first time,” I say and walk off, leaving Haley confused since she didn’t know the full story between Klaus and I.

A few moments later I find that mostly everyone had left. “Ready to go home?” Klaus asks from behind me.

“Yeh, I’m just glad this day is over,” I say and we head back to his house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This was just another filler. Thanks for reading!


	6. 28. The Man Behind the Devil

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post Date: 12.29.20
> 
> Word count: 2k
> 
> Based off: 04x09 “O Come, All Ye Faithful”

I come downstairs to find Klaus finishing a painting as Stefan walks into the doorway. “Didn’t think I’d see you here,” I say looking to Stefan.

“Looks like a giant snowflake,” Stefan says looking at Klaus’ painting.

“I prefer to think of it as an expression of post-modernism. It’s my donation to the Winter Wonderland Charity Event,” Klaus says.

“It’s a giant snowflake,” I say as a hybrid walks in. 

“You said it was urgent?” He asks.

“Yes. Take this to the Mystic Grill immediately,” Klaus says.

“You want me to be a delivery guy?” The hybrid asks.

“What I want is for you to do whatever I say, without the attitude,” Klaus says before the hybrid takes the painting. “And be careful with that. It’s still wet,” Klaus says.

“Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, you know,” Stefan says.

“What is the point of my hybrids being sired to me if I can’t maximize on the benefits of free labor?” Klaus says.

“Or you’re just lazy,” I snicker.

“What are you doing here?” Klaus asks Stefan.

“Elena is sired to Damon,” Stefan says as the information reaches me for the first time.

“I intuited as much,” Klaus says.

“Which means I need to find the cure now more than ever, and here you are making post-modern snowflakes,” Stefan says.

“I’ve delivered. I retrieved the Hunter’s sword from Italy. Which we’ll use to decipher the map hidden in the hunter’s mark. You’re the one who’s supposed to deliver the hunter and his mark,” Klaus says.

“Well, Jeremy is the hunter and he has to keep killing vampires to complete his mark, but we can’t quite figure out how to keep him from killing us,” Stefan explains.

“Sounds like quite the chore, which is why I feel perfectly justified in doing a little charity work,” Klaus says.

“Charity work?” I chuckle.

“Or maybe you’re lying about having found the sword,” Stefan suggests.

“Why would I lie to you, Stefan? We’re in this together,” Kalus says moving to a safe in another room. He opens it and takes a sword out. “The hilt acts as a cipher which we’ll use to decode the marks on Jeremy’s tattoo when he’s killed enough vampires to complete it,” Klaus says setting the sword down and sitting on a couch. Stefan examines the sword and its symbols.

“Alright. You boys have fun with your toy. I promised Caroline I’d help with set up...again. I’ll probably see you both later,” I say about to head out.

“Love?” Klaus says stopping me.

“Yessss,” I say turning back around.

“Make sure you’re back before the event starts. I want to take you there myself,” Klaus says.

“Al--right. Sure,” I say confused, and leave the house. I head over to the town square to see what was left to do since I had actually slept in and arrived late. Thankfully there wasn’t much left, just setting up the events snack table. And Thankfully Caroline wasn’t too mad. Since the event started fairly early in the day, I finished setting up and head back to Klaus’ house. I showered and got into a red dress, trying to be a little festive. 

“You look dashing love,” Klaus says as I meet him in the doorway. I roll my eyes as he never seems to stop trying. We head to the event and into the Grill where his painting is. We find Caroline staring at Klaus’ painting.

“Here to steal tiny Tim’s crutches?” She says catching Klaus and I standing there.

“Dickens was a dark man,” Klaus says.

“Nice snowflake by the way,” Caroline compliments.

“Is my work really that literal?” Klaus asks.

“Yes,” I say.

“I’m serious. There’s something lonely about it,” Caroline says.

“I’m gonna take that as a compliment,” Klaus says. 

“Good choice,” I say.

“Would you girls like some champagne?” Klaus asks.

“Can’t too many adult prying eyes. Don’t want to be a high school cautionary tale at the next town meeting,” Caroline says.

“Well, then it’s a good thing the high school part is nearly over,” Klaus says.

“If we’re gonna be nice to each other then I will need that glass of champagne,” Caroline says.

“How do you think I survive staying at his place,” I say as Caroline chuckles and Klaus shoots me a look.

“Allow me,” Klaus says walking off. Caroline pulls up her phone to text someone.

“What’s going on? Whenever you text someone that urgently there’s always something going on,” I say.

“You promise not to say anything?” Caroline asks even though she knows I won’t. “Tyler is making a plan to have Klaus’s body jump into his, so I told Stefan to grab the sword for the cure,” Caroline whispers.

“That’s a stupid plan,” I say.

“I tried to talk Tyler out of it, but he dead set on doing it,” Caroline says.

“Well, if I can be of any help, let me know,” I say.

“Just keep Klaus here and occupied until we have a hybrid take Klaus where they want him to go,” She says. I nodded and head to find Klaus. As the day goes on, I find that Klaus is actually making an effort to get to know me and actually spend time with me. We go around and check out what the town has to offer. 

Later in the night, I found that I needed time away from the whole event so I told Klaus that I was heading to the bathroom. When I was on my way to the Mystic Grill bathroom I heard a scream, as I made my way there I found April walking out. 

“What happened?” I ask as I see Caroline standing there.

“That werewolf bitch Haley screwed the plan up,” She says and leaves the bathroom. I follow behind her.

“There you are. Stefan has been looking for you. Adrian’s leading Klaus to the cellar,” Matt says.

“How come the only time April Young isn’t following you around like a lost puppy is when I’m lying dead with a broken neck?” Caroline asks annoyed.

“April saw you?” Matt asks.

“Yeah. It’s ok. I compelled her,” Caroline says.

“No, She’s wearing Jeremy’s vervain bracelet. She can’t be compelled,” Matt whispers causing us to worry.

“Ok, well do you know what Haley is up to?” I ask. 

“I don’t know but it has to do with the hybrids,” Caroline says.  
“I’ll go back up Stefan,” I say before heading out. I make my way to the forest and to the Lockwood cellar. As I make my way in I watch as Klaus standing in front of Kim’s lifeless body.

“Kl--Klaus…?” I say as I come into the cellar finding Kim's body on the ground and Klaus covered in blood.

“Athena...I—I can explain.” He says stepping closer.

“No,” I say stepping back. “I don’t know what exactly was going on, all I knew was that they were here. But I was giving you one last chance. And you just threw it away. I thought you were actually trying. I mean today was a perfect example. But no you go behind my back and yet again hurt...nope sorry kill the people I care about.” I say as my voice starts to waver.

“You helped them break their sire bond, huh? And you broke yours too, didn’t you?” he asks.

“Yeah, I did. What are you gonna do about it? Kill me too?” I ask picking up a piece of wood and pointing it at my heart. Klaus just stands there silent. “Do it!” I yell at him as more tears fall down my face. 

“Athena, please just put the wood down,” Klaus says as calm as he could. 

“You know after breaking the sire bond. I thought what I felt for you would go away, I thought they were tied to the bond. But no, they’re still here. I’m the only person who sees the man behind the devil, a man that can care and love someone. But after seeing what I saw, this,” I say pointing to Kim’s body. “I think that the devil is all there is left to you. I thought that I could be the person who could make you realize how important people are. That they’re not just pawns in your little game. But all that hope is gone, you just made me a pawn in your game and I thought I was more than that,” I say. 

“Athena. Can you please put the wood down and we can talk this out?” Klaus asks, still frozen in place.

“No. You don’t get to talk with me. You’ve already said your piece with your actions and now I’m saying mine. You broke my simple rule. To stop hurting the people I care about. I finally found people where we were all the same, people I could trust, people I could call family. And so what they broke your sire bond. So did I, but now I’m not so sure you didn’t use it on me like you promised. So why don’t take the damn stake and plunge it, right into my heart?!” I scream as Klaus finally moves and takes a hold of my hand with the wood.

“You know I can’t...You mean too—“ he starts.

“If I mean so much to you. Then you should’ve followed my one simple rule, Klaus. You don’t deserve to be in my life. I should’ve never taken a chance on you after you broke my trust so many times,” I say looking straight into his eyes, hoping there was even a sliver of hope. But I didn’t see any. I let go of my end of the wood.

“Athena, please,” Klaus says.

“Just go, before I kill you myself,” I say and he rushes out. I sit there with tears in my eyes, trying to figure out what I did wrong and how I could’ve stopped this, but it seems like it would’ve ended this way regardless. I heard footsteps behind me and turned around to find Tyler standing there.

“Tyler...I’m sorry I didn’t get here fast enough. I tried,” I say.

“As much as I wish I could blame this on you. I can’t. This was Haley,” He says softly before leaving and I follow behind.

“Tyler, you know I would’ve stopped him right? You know I wouldn’t let your whole pack get slaughtered right?” I ask hoping that he hasn’t pegged me as a cold-hearted murder like Klaus.

“Yeah, but I gotta go before he finds me,” Tyler says and runs away.

I make my way back to town and to the Salvatore’s. When I walk in I find Stefan and Caroline sitting on the couch. 

“What happened?” Caroline asks noticing me.

“I wasn’t fast enough. A--All the hybrids are dead,” I say shakily.

“Where’s Klaus?” Stefan asks.

“I don’t know. After what I saw I couldn’t look at him anymore, I told him to leave me after I found him. I’m sorry, I--I--,” I say.

“It’s ok. It’s really not your fault. If Haley hadn’t screwed up or whatever, this wouldn’t have happened,” Caroline says.

“Are you sure? Because he damn well didn’t seem to happy to find out his hybrids broke their sire bonds and band together,” I say.

“Ok. Maybe it still would’ve, but he let you go,” Caroline said.

“I was never apart of the plan and we all know he wouldn’t kill me in cold blood,” I say as Caroline and Stefan looked at me in agreement. 

“Look, what Klaus did wasn’t your fault. It’s Klaus, he does what he wants,” Caroline says.

“You’re right. I just can’t believe I gave him another damn chance. I don’t even know what I was thinking,” I say.

“I know you just wanted to get him off your back and it did work,” Caroline responds.

“It did. But just because I told him I done with him doesn’t mean he’ll stop trying to get me back, regardless of how many of my rules he broke,” I say.

“Why don’t we deal with this another day. Clean up and you can stay in your old room here,” Stefan says.

“Stefan’s right. You’ve had enough craziness for the night,” Caroline agrees and I nod. I go to take a shower and get ready for bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This was the part I was really excited to write, for some reason. Now that Athena has given up on Klaus, do you think he’s gone off the deep end? Do you think Klaus will finally fight fair to win Athena back and will she take him back? Or do you think she’s finally done with Klaus and his shenanigans? I hope you enjoyed this emotion-packed part. Thanks for reading!


	7. 29. Vacation? Not Really.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post Date: 01.05.21
> 
> Word count: 1.6k
> 
> Based off: 04x10 “After School Special”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I was able to write out this part since it was just a filler. It’s a bit weird since I didn’t really know what I was doing next but I hope you all enjoy it.

The next morning I woke up to find texts from Tyler and Elena saying that Carol Lockwood is dead. And a text from Caroline saying she thinks that Klaus did it. Great, more shit I didn’t want to deal with after last night. As I got ready for school Caroline texted me that there was going to be a memorial service. 

~At School~

I sat down next to Bonnie as the memorial started.

“Carol Lockwood always said that togetherness, in times of tragedy, leads to healing. That one community is stronger together than a thousand of its members,” Sheriff Forbes says as Bonnie passes her flame to light my candle. “But how does a community stay strong after losing its leader? And Carol was so much more than just a mayor. She was an open-minded friend, and a concerned mother, taken from us too soon by a terrible accident,” Sheriff Forbes says and Tyler gets up and leaves the auditorium.

“I’m gonna go check on Tyler,” I say to Elena and Bonnie and follow after him. I make my way into the hall and find Tyler hurriedly walking down the hall.

“Tyler,” I say barely loud enough.

“What?” He asks and stops.

“I--I just wanted to make sure you’re doing ok,” I say hesitantly.

“Why?” He asks annoyed.

“I don’t know. I just feel like this is somehow my fault. I---I said things to Klaus and I feel that what I said to him pushed him over and caused him to...,” I trail off and slowly make my way to him.  
“Athena. I don’t even want to try and understand what is going on between you and him. But I know for a fact that if Klaus did something, it was not your fault. So if you don’t mind I’d like to leave,” He says and continues walking down the hall.

“Tyler. Just let me know if you need anything, really,” I say even though he’s a few feet away. I make my way back to the auditorium and find Caroline hanging her phone up.

“Hey, you good?” I ask her.

“Yeah, I just want to help Tyler, but he’s too stubborn to accept any,” She says.

“Yeah, I just talked to him and he just brushed me off,” I say looking at the ground.

“Are you ok?” She asks.

“I just---feel like if Klaus did do this. It’s my fault. Last night I said things that could’ve sent Klaus into a major spiral. And I don’t know if I could handle it if…” I say.

“Look, there’s nothing that you could’ve done or said for Klaus to do this. There’s so much more happening, that doesn’t involve you. That the likelihood is very low. Trust me, we’ll figure this out,” Caroline says.

“Still,” I say quietly. 

“I’m gonna try to find Tyler. Just take a day to yourself. You deserve it,” Caroline says and hugs me before walking off. After thinking a bit I decide to make a phone call.

“What?” Damon asks.

“You’re still at the Gilbert cabin right?” I ask.

“Yeah, why?” He asks.

“I need some time away from Mystic Falls and stuff. Mind if I come?” I ask.

“Will you help with Jeremy’s training?” Damon asks.

“Sure, just anything to get me away from here,” I say.

“Great. See you soon,” Damon says and hangs up.

I head back to the Salvatore house to grab some stuff and head out to the cabin. As I arrive I head to the back, finding Jeremy and Matt training as Damon just sits a watch.

“Hey guys,” I say dropping my bag.

“Hey,” Matt says.

“What are you doing here?” Jeremy asks.

“I needed a break and Damon said I could come out if I help,” I explain as the boy’s nod before going back to training.

“Aren’t you supposed to be training Jeremy?” I ask making my way to Damon.

“Matt’s sparring with him,” Damon says.

“You see that?” Jeremy asks Damon after pulling Matt to the floor.

“Couldn’t miss it. It was in slow motion,” Damon responds.  
“Then teach me something useful. We’ve been here for days, and so far all you’ve done is bark orders,” Jeremy says annoyed.

“Ok,” Damon says picking a stake up. “Take a seat at the bench, quarterback. Karate kid wants a shot at the title,” Damon says making his way to the boys.

“Jeremy, you’re not ready for this,” Matt says as Damon tosses the stake to Jeremy. He rushes Damon but is quickly grasped in a headlock.

“Now, all I have to do is apply a little pressure under your jaw,” Damon says.

“Damon, stop,” I say as a truck rolls up, with a pizza place displayed on the side.

“Double pepperoni 3 days in a row. You guys eat anything else?” The blonde girl asks.

“Why? Are you offering?” Damon says appearing behind her. “A little something extra, cut off the pizza pipeline for a couple days. No matter how much they beg, don’t come back,” Damon says handing her a wad of cash.

“Sorry, guys,” She says and heads back to her truck.

“You’re gonna starve us now?” Jeremy asks.

“If that’s what it takes to make you a hunter. Now run around the lake, twice. Keep him company,” Damon says.

“I don’t have to listen to you,” Matt says.

“You do if you want to eat,” Damon says.

“Do you really need to be such a pain in the ass?” I ask Damon before heading inside to pick a room. After I finished settling in, I come outside to find Damon showing Jeremy how to load a mag. 

“Now do it like your life depends on it cause it does,” Damon tells Jeremy.

“Don’t act like you care about my life. You care about the Hunter’s mark and curing Elena. So she’s not sired to your ass,” Jeremy protests.

“Both require you to be alive, which is why I’ve updated our relationship status to ‘it’s complicated.’ You talk to her at all? Elena,” Damon asks Jeremy. It seemed like the conversation was turning a bit personal so I decided to head back in until I heard an all too familiar voice. Even though I was pissed at him I at least wanted to hear what Klaus had to say.

“I’m sorry. Did I interrupt play time?” Klaus asks.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Jeremy asks.

“I’m simply appreciating the sights and smells of nature, neither of which presently include rotting vampire flesh, so I’m a bit concerned. How many vampires has he killed?” Klaus asks.

“If we throw Jeremy out into the world right now, he’s chum,” Damon responds.

“Now see that’s not a number. 12-- that’s a number. That’s how many of my hybrids I slaughtered with my sword. 3-- that’s how many days it took to quell the urge to kill your brother after he knowingly watched as I walked into a death trap. 1-- that’s the number of purposes you serve. You are here to grow Jeremy’s mark, so I‘ll ask again how many vampires has he killed since he’s been here? ” Klaus asks as I roll my eyes.

“Zero,” Damon responds.

“Hmm. That’s a pity. I’m going to need that cure sooner rather than later, hybrid shortage and all. How can I help?” Klaus asks.

“You know...now that you mention it, Jeremy watch and learn, “ Damon says loading the gun. 

Before Damon could do anything himself, I rushed and grab the gun from his hands, shooting two bullets into Klaus’ chest. “That’s for the hybrids and Carol Lockwood,” I say before handing Damon the gun and heading back inside.

I spent the rest of the day inside avoiding Klaus seeing as he wasn’t leaving. I would’ve just headed back to Mystic Falls but it was already late and I really wasn’t feeling like going back. I hear screams fill the cabin and rush out to find the blonde girl from earlier staked on the floor.

“What the hell happened?” I ask.

“She just attacked me,” Matt says.

“She was a vampire?” I ask.

“A new one by the looks of it,” Jeremy says.

“Great,” Damon says as him and Klaus walk in. I make my way out of the room before Klaus could say a word to me.

“I don’t think she wants to talk to you,” I hear Damon say from the hallway.  
Just as I was about to shut my door, “Athena. Can we just talk,” Klaus asks as his hand stops the door. I don’t say a word and try to shut the door again, but Klaus still stopped it.

“Ok, if you’re not going to talk to me. At least hear me out,” Klaus says. Yet again I don’t say a word. I just punched Klaus in the face and slammed it shut.

An hour later I hear footsteps approaching my door again, “Athena, we leaving,” Damon says through my door.

“Have fun,” I say.

“We as in you,” Damon says.

“I don’t want anything to do with him,” I say.

“You promised you’d help train,” Damon says.

I open my door to find Damon stupidly close to it, “Fine, but if I have to speak one word to him. I’m out,” I say and get my shoes on. The four of us head out and Damon takes us to a bar. As we walk in we find all of the patrons laying around with bite marks on their necks and Klaus at the bar drinking. 

“I was beginning to worry you guys wouldn’t find the place,” Kalus says.

“What the hell?” Jeremy asks.

“Did you kill all these people?” Matt asks.

“Not exactly. They’re in transition. Killing them is your job,” Klaus says to Jeremy.  
“You said you were going to convince Klaus to do this another way,” Jeremy says to Damon. 

“Well, I thought about it. And I realized his idea was better,” Damon says.

“What the hell, Damon,” I say as the people start to wake up.


	8. 30. Freezer Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post Date: 01.12.21
> 
> Word count: 3.1k
> 
> Based off: 04x11″Catch Me If You Can”

“No way. I’m not doing this,” Jeremy protests.

“What makes you think you have a choice?” Klaus questions back.

“You have to kill vampires to complete the hunter’s mark. Mark equals cure. You’re in a bar full of almost vampires, so get your hunt on,” Damon says, even though we all knew that.

“Screw you. You said I wouldn’t have to kill any innocent people,” Jeremy says.

“Jeremy, they’re not people,” Damon says as I roll my eyes.

“Enough! Have at it, or else,” Klaus says.

“I don’t take orders from you, dick. Hunter’s can’t be compelled,” Jeremy says and drops the stake in his hands.

“You’re right. I can’t compel you. But if your conscience is getting in the way, then allow me to make this easy for you because I can compel them. I’m gonna give you a two-minute head start. Then I’m gonna send every vampire in here after you. You kill them, or they kill your friend...Matt,” Klaus says.

“Wait a second,” Matt says.

“No, no. You turn them, he kills them. That was the deal, Klaus,” Damon says.

“I’m taking artistic license,” Klaus responds.

“You know he can’t take them all on at the same time,” Damon comments.

“With you as his coach, he’ll be fine. It’s Matt I’m worried about,” Klaus says.

“Jeremy, go get the weapons out of the car. I’ll be right behind you. Both of you,” He says to Jeremy and Matt.

“If I hear an engine start, I’ll kill Matt myself!” Klaus yells to the boys. Damon gives a few choice words to Klaus before bringing me outside to find Matt and Jeremy. Damon and I rushed through the woods and find Matt and Jeremy. 

“Don’t hesitate. You’re lucky it was us otherwise, you two would be dead,” Damon tells Jeremy.

“You set us up,” Jeremy says taking the crossbow back from Damon.

“I was trying to get this thing over with. You’re the one that pissed off Klaus. Now you have to fight your way out of it,” Damon protests.

“Where are the other vampires?” Matt asks.

“They’re newbies. They’re still trying to figure out how to track. Which means you have two seconds to get ready to fight,” I tell them.

“The Lake house is this way. If we can get there, they won’t be able to get inside,” Jeremy tells Matt.

“Wait. You want to run?” Damon asks. 

“They’re gonna kill Matt,” Jeremy says.

“Fine. Get out of here. Athena and I will slow them down,” Damon says before the two boys rush off. As soon as the boys are gone, you and Damon hear a newbie. As he makes his way up to you two, Damon shoves his hand into the mans chest, pulling his heart out. 

“Can’t you talk to your psycho boyfriend and have him call this off?” Damon asks.

“He’s not my boyfriend,” I say as I kill another newbie. 

“Well he’s something and maybe if you talk to him--” Damon says.

“Nope, not gonna happen,” I respond as we head through the forest.

“Why not?” Damon questions.

“You really think me even saying one word would stop this?” I ask. Damon doesn’t speak a word, telling me I’m right. We spent the rest of the night in the forest since all the newbies were stalking the cabin and we didn’t feel like fighting all of them. 

Once the sun came up all of the newbies scattered and we made it into the cabin. As we walked into the living room we find Elena cleaning Matt up, “What the hell were you thinking? All I asked you to do was to teach him how to fight,” Elena says.

“He’s not the best student in the world,” Damon says pouring himself a drink.

“Wait. Now this is my fault?” Jeremy asks.

“Stop talking,” Damon says to Jeremy. “Look. I know you’re angry, but my way was the easiest, fastest and safest was to complete his mark to get you the cure,” Damon says.

“Yeah, fastes and easiest way to get Matt killed,” I say under by breath.

“I don’t care about the cure, Damon. Not if it means putting the people that I love in danger,” Elena says.

“Hey. There would’ve been no danger if he hadn’t gone all bleeding heart,” Damon says.

“He killed someone. These were innocent people,” Elena says.

“But the mark grew, didn’t it?” Damon asks. 

“Ok. Look. We need a plan. There’s a group of compelled vampires out there and as soon as the sun goes down, they’re gonna come after Matt, so we have to find a way to protect him,” I explain.

“Yes, I know, but there will be no problem when big Jer and I here go on a hunting expedition. Elena, I know it’s tragic, I get it, but we also agree that he had to kill them. Now we have added incentive, so you take the least most valuable player home, and Jeremy and I, and Athena if she’d like to join, will finish this,” Damon says.

“I’m sorry. Are you saying that I should leave him here with you?” Elena asks.

“Trust me. I will keep him safe, ok? Plus Athena will be here,” Damon says.

“Does this mean I have no choice?” I ask.

“Not really,” Damon says.

“Fine, I’ll help,” I say. Once Elena and Matt left, Damon had the three of us get in his car and head out to the bar.  
“You really think they went back to the bar?” Jeremy asks as we get out.

“Where else are they gonna go? It’s all cabins and vacation homes. They can’t get in anywhere,” Damon says getting the weapons out. “All right. There you go,” Damon hads the big crossbow to Jeremy. 

“Fine. Let’s just ge this over with,” Jeremy says pulling back the string on the crossbow.

“Listen. Just go one at a time, only shoot for the heart, don’t hesitate, and don’t miss,” Damon says handing Jeremy the arrow and me a stake.

“Save the teaching moment. Elena’s not here. You don’t have to pretend like you give a damn about me,” Jeremy says loading the arrow.

“I’m trying to keep you alive, dumbass. Come on you two” Damon replies as you all head to the bar. 

We walk into the bar and find it empty. I notice a large amount of blood staining the floor, leading to the back. “Something’s not right,” Damon says.

“You’re saying,” I say. We continue to the back of the bar, into the freezer area, where the blood is leading us. Once we make our way there we find a pile of the newbies, all dead.

“Looks like we’re gonna have to find some new vampires. What a waste,” Damon says inspecting the pile.

“What the hell happened?” Jeremy asks.

“I confess,” A familiar voice says behind us. “I did it,” Kol says as we turn around.

“Kol,” Jeremy says.

“Jeremy, good to see you, mate. Sorry about the mess. It was a little crowded when I arrived, and I prefer more intimate gatherings. We four need to have a little chat,” Kol says taking a swig from a bottle. “Care for a drink?” Kol asks.

“He’s underage and I don’t like you. So let’s just cut to it,” Damon says.

“Athena?” Kol asks.

“I’m not particularly in the mood to talk or interact with any Mikaelsons,” I say.

“My brother bragged about his plan to complete Jeremy’s hunter’s mark. It was easy enough to track this lot down. They were all hiding in the shadows. Now killing young vampires is easy or old ones for that matter,” Kol explains.

“Why? What’s it to you either way?” Damon asks.

“Because you fools, in your zeal to find the cure, you risk waking someone very dangerous,” Kol says.

“Oh. You must be talking about Silas,” Damon says.

“What do you know of him?” Kol asks.

“Nothing. Don’t want to. Not our problem,” Damon responds.

“Isn’t it?” Kol asks. “A few hundred years back, I came across a group that worshipped Silas. His followers told me that he would rise again, and when he did, he would trigger the end of all time. You know, being an immortal, you can see why I’m opposed to time’s ending. So, I murdered all of them, and now here you are willing to risk raising him in your search for the cure. I can’t exactly sit back and let that happen, can I?” Kol explains.

“We’re not gonna back off the cure because you were told one too many scary bedtime stories, you idiot,” Damon says.

“Jeremy, we were mates in Colorado. You’re a smart lad. Why don’t you call off this imbecilic treasure hunt?” Kol asks.

“I’m not calling anything off, mate,” Jeremy says.

“Well, I could kill you, but then I’d have to deal with the hunter’s curse, and I don’t particularly feel like being haunted for the next century. Better idea. I’ll just rip off your arms,” Kol says. Right as Kol was about to go for Jeremy, Damon pushes him back into a wall. 

“Jeremy run!” I yell as Damon hold Kol off.

“What about you?” He asks.

“I’m a hybrid, I’ll be fine. Now go!” I say and Jeremy runs off. I go to help hold Kol back but as I come up to them Kol has Damon in a headlock. I tried to help Damon but in return I get my neck snapped.

I wake up to see Damon sitting on something with a piece of wood in his chest and Kol on the phone, “Where’s Damon Salvatore and Athena Dumont?” I hear Klaus ask his brother.

“I gave him a good and proper beating, just for old times sake. And Athena is fine, just taking a nice nap,” Kol says not knowing I’m awake.

“Yes. Well, you’ve had your fun. Now let them go and come home. Avoid any more trouble or you’ll find yourself back in a box,” Klaus says.

“Hey. No need to be nasty about it,” Kol responds.

“On the contrary I find nastiness to be essential whenever my siblings try to sabotage me. Listen closely, Kol. Stay away from the Gilbert boy and don’t lay a finger on Athena. You understand me?” Klaus asks.

“Fine. I won’t touch them. You have my word,” Kol says hanging up.

“Very good, darling. Now stab yourself a little bit further,” Kol says and Damon pushes the wood in more, letting me know he compelled Damon.

I try to rush to pull it out but Kol grabs by the wrist, “She’s up,” He says turning me towards him. “You’re lucky I gave my brother my word...and I slightly fancy you. Although, I don’t think my brother would be too happy to hear that. Otherwise your situation would’ve been much worse. Now be a good little wolf, and sit,” Kol compels me. He let’s go of my wrist and I find myself sitting on the ground of the freezer.

“If you’re gonna kill me, do it like a man,” Damon says.

“I don’t want to kill you. I just want to make sure you could be compelled,” Kol says.

“I’m gonna rip out your spleen,” Damon says.

“What do you get out of this? As far as I can tell, getting a good ass kicking by Klaus,” I say. 

“I can see why my brother likes you. You have fight, definitely can see why he wants to keep you close,” Kol says.

“I’m not really in an interactive mood with Klaus right now,” I say.

“Either way, he’s not one to let go of things, and I can tell he won’t let go of you. Damon now you don’t really want the cure to be found. You fancy Elena. I mean, even more now that she’s a vampire. Admit it. The last vestige of her humanity is her annoying little brother Jeremy, and deep, deep down, I bet you want him dead, don’t you?” Kol asks Damon.

“Nope,” Damon responds.

“You’re lying. I bet you’d love to rip his head right off...and I’m gonna give you your wish,” Kol says moving to face Damon. “You’re not gonna remember what I say. But you’re going to find Jeremy Gilbert, and when you do, you’re going to kill him,” Kol compells Damon.

“Kol, don’t make him do that,” I say.

“I almost forgot about you sweetheart. Now, you won’t remember what I said to Damon or to you,” Kol say grabbing my face to look him in the eyes. “I would like to know something, some information of value. What are your true feelings for my brother, Niklaus?” He asks. I couldn’t stay silent as he was compelling me, there was no way to resist answering.

“K--Klaus is the first person that ever made me feel like I belonged somewhere. He’s the first person who ever took me in. He’s my first family, along with Elijah. And the first person to ever truly love me. As much as he hurts and tortures me and my friends, does things that I don’t approve of, and ignores my wishes and what I truly want. He is the one and only person I will love until I die. I will do anything to get him back to the man I love, even if it means going to big lengths,” I say shakily wishing I didn’t speak one word.

“That was lovely. Heart wrenching. I bet my brother would love to hear you say that. Oh wait,” Kol says pulling up his phone. “Looks like he will,” Kol plays a small part of the recorded voice memo. 

“Kol...please don’t. Just let me do things my way. Please,” I say.

“Why are you so afraid to tell my brother your true feelings?” He asks

“K--Kol. Just don’t send that, please,” I say.

“Only if you promise to do one thing,” He says.

“What?” I snap.

“Convince my brother to stop looking for the cure and waking Silas,” Kol says.

“You know I can’t. Plus he’s not the only one looking,” I reply.

“Well then we’ll make it interesting,” He says pulling my face closer to him. “Stop Klaus from getting the cure in his hands. Or you’ll kill yourself. It’s as simple as that,” Kol says.

“Kol don’t make her do that. She deserves better,” Damon says.

“It’s already done. Oh and you won’t remember what I said either, love,” Kol says staring into my eyes once again. “You two are free to go,” Kol says before rushing out.

I quickly rush to pull the piece of wood out of Damon’s chest and we make it to the car. Damon drives us back to Mystic Falls and to Elena’s house. 

“What happened? Are you two ok?” Elena asks us once she answered the door.

“Kol happened,” I say.

“Thank god you three got away. If Kol had taken Jeremy,” Elena says.

“Is he here? I just want to talk to him really fast,” Damon interrupts Elena.

“He’s at the grill. He wanted to check on Matt,” Elena says.

“Well I should go apologize to him. I was--I was pretty tough on him today,” Damon says. The three of us make our way to the Mystic Grill.

“Don’t you ever take a night off?” Damon asks as we approach Matt.

“I took two days off to help you out at the lake house, remember? I almost got killed,” Matt says.

“Where’s Jeremy?” Damon asks Matt.

“He’s in the back I thin,” Matt says. Damon moves to go find Jeremy as I hung back with Matt and Elena. Elena notices Damon making a b-line for Jeremy and stops him.

“Are you alright? What’s going on?” Elena asks him as I walk up. Damon doesn’t respond and just walks off. Elena looks at me confused but I had no response either. Both of us follow Damon into the back. “Damon, what is wrong with you?” Elena asks.

“It was Kol. He must of compelled me. Us. If I find Jeremy...I might kill him,” Damon says looking at me before speeding into the vent area Jeremy escaped from.

“What did Kol compel you to do?” Elena asks me.

“I don’t know. He must of made both of us forget,” I respond.

“Ok, we’ll figure that out later. Right now we need to make sure Damon doesn’t kill Jeremy,” Elena says and follows where Damon and Jeremy disappeared to.

“Where could they have gone?” I ask as we keep wondering the tunnels.

“I don’t know, but I have an idea of who might,” Elena says and dials a number.

“Hello, Elena,” I hear Rebekah say over the phone.

“What did you do to Stefan?” Elena asks.

“Rescued him from his old, dull life, but it keeps calling. Stefan’s not in the mood to talk right now,” Rebekah says and I roll my eyes.

“Then he can listen. I know you might not care about me right now, Stefan, but Kol compelled Damon to kill Jeremy and Athena to do who knows what. Damon and Jeremy are somewhere in the tunnels, and I-- It’s one giant maze down here, and Athena and I can;t find them, so if you still care about the cure or about Jeremy, then maybe you can come help,” Elena explains. A few moments of silence go by and Elena hangs up after not getting a response.

“We can find them,” I reassure her. She nods and moves through the tunnels as I follow. We finally find Damon as he’s walking out of the tunnels towards Jeremy.

“Damon, Stop! Please. I know that you don’t want to hurt Jeremy. So please stop,” Elena pleads.

“I can’t,” Damon says.

“Yes you can. You’re strong enough to resist the compulsion. I know that you are,” E;ena says.

“Why, because Stefan did?” Damon asks.

“Because I love you, Because you love me. You’d do anything for me, so please...do this for me,” Elena says moving closer to Damon.

“I’m sorry, Elena,” Damon says and rushes to Jeremy.

“Damon!” Elena and I yell. As we make our way to where Damon went we find that Stefan was already there and snapped Damon’s head.

“You’re welcome,” Stefan says. We all head back to the Salvatore house and bring Damon into the cellar. Elena and I wait for Stefan to make his way back up from talking to Damon.

“So you really don’t know what Kol compelled you to do,” Elena asks.

“Nope. It could range anything from you guys to Klaus. But since he’s a Mikaelson. It’s probably something to do with Klaus. So I can’t wait to figure that out,” I say.

“Well, whatever it is. I know you can beat it,” Elena says.

“Thanks. I’m gonna head to bed. Night,” I say and head upstairs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This one was interesting to write and I definitely didn’t plan for it to play out this way but it just did. I hope you all enjoyed! Thanks for reading.


	9. 31. Sliver of Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post Date: 01.19.21
> 
> Word count: 2.6k
> 
> Based off: 04x12 “A View to a Kill”
> 
> Warnings: suicide (via compulsion)

I wake up to the peaceful sound of nothing considering Stefan went to wherever and Damon was on lockdown. But my peace was interrupted by a call from Elena.

“What’s up?” I ask answering the phone.

“Did you just wake up?” Elena asks.

“I had a rough night, ok? So what’s up?” I respond.

“There’s vervain in the water so be careful,” Elena says.

“Great, adding to my list of things to avoid. At least I’m at the Salvatores and they have a system to filter that stuff out. I guess I’m staying here longer than I wanted,” I say.

“What do you mean by that?” Elena asks.

“Well, I feel like I’m always in the way or a nuisance here. So I figured I’d move everything back to my house,” I say.

“I’m sure you’re not. Talk to you later,” Elena says and hangs up.

I walk downstairs to find Stefan coming back, “He’s back,” I say when he closes the front door.

“Hello, mon petit tournesol,” Klaus says as he follows Stefan into the house. I immediately turn around when I see him, but he grabs my arm. “Can we please talk later, sometime soon?” Klaus says but I don’t even turn around to give him the satisfaction that I’ll entertain the idea. 

“How about you two deal with your couple problems later,” Stefan says. I roll my eyes at his comment but still stay silent. The two boys head down to the cellar room and I head back upstairs. 

Since no one needed help or nothing crazy was happening, I decided to have a chill day drawing and painting. A few minutes later I hear a knock on my door but I don’t go to answer it, “It’s just me,” Stefan says.

“What could you possibly need from me?” I ask answering the door.

“Someone’s in a bad mood,” Stefan points out.

“Look, Kol compelled me to do who knows what. And considering he’s a Mikaelson, it’s probably something to do with Klaus. Who I am gladly avoiding. So can you please just leave me alone, for one day?” I say shutting the door.

“I need you to make sure Klaus doesn’t kill Damon or do something else stupid with him,” Stefan says stopping my door from shutting all the way.

“Are you trying to piss me off more? I’m just asking for one day,” I say.

“Please. I just need you to check up on them every few hours. You don’t even need to stay down there that long,” Stefan says.

“So the babysitter needs a babysitter?” I question.

“It’s Klaus,” Stefan says.

“Fine, but you owe me,” I say.

“Deal,” Stefan says and walks away. 

A few hours pass by and I decide to actually do what Stefan wishes since I made him owe me something, not sure what though. As I walk down to the cellar, I hear the two boys talking 

“Some people are just more capable of forgiveness than others. Bet you score about a negative 500 in that realm,” Damon says as I walk closer to where Damon is being held

“Come on. There must be a secret. It can’t just be the sire bond. What is it? Compulsion? Manipulation? What is it you say to her?” Klaus asks Damon as I stop in my tracks to listen. 

“I think this has something to do with a certain brunette hybrid. I think you murdered Carol Lockwood. And that the other 12 hybrid murders make you worried that Athena will never forgive you,” Damon says. I leave the cellar area before I could hear any more, not knowing how to process what I just heard. 

I head back upstairs just wanting to forget the conversation I heard between Klaus and Damon. I resumed painting, putting on my headphones to block out any distractions. 

A few more hours pass by and I finally decided to go check on the boys again after processing their conversation. As I made my way into the cellar I heard a loud thud. As I made my way to the cellar I see Klaus holding Damon up by the throat against the wall.

“What the hell is going on here?” I ask.

“The Gilberts are trying something,” Klaus says clearly mad.

“I can tell you that Damon has nothing to do with it,” I say.

“How do you know,” Klaus says.

“I’ve been stuck in the penalty box with you since yesterday. Stefan won’t talk to me and Elena won’t come to see me. So maybe you’re right. Maybe she’s written me off,” Damon answers.

“Tell me what you know,” Klaus says to Damon.

“I don’t know anything about a plan,” Damon says.

“Stay here till I return,” Klaus says and lets Damon go. Klaus leaves the room and drags me with him.

As soon as we get to the main area, I stop him from pulling me, “Athena, please talk to me. Kol has threatened you and I need to know what’s going on and what he did to you before I stop the Gilberts from killing him,” Klaus says. I still stay silent, hoping he’d just run off to save his brother. 

“Speak to me!” He yells grabbing at my sides. After a few more seconds of silence, I could tell that Klaus gives up and he started to leave.

“Klaus,” I say and stop him. “I—I don’t know what Kol did to me or said to me, he compelled me. But the only thing I can guess is that it has to do with you, I mean he is your brother. The only thing connecting you with him, besides blood, is the cure. And I’m the only other one that would speak to you the way I do,” I say.

“What about the cure?” Klaus asks urgently.

“I just know he wants you to stop looking for it...I mean what if you did? It would mean Kol would stop getting in your way? And my friends aren’t even planning to use it on you or anything,” I say.

“Athena, you know I can’t stop. You know that I have to find it and ensure that they won’t use it against me,” Klaus says.

“But they don’t even plan on using it on you!” I say.

“I need to make sure it’s destroyed,” Klaus says. As soon as he says that, I find myself breaking some work off of a piece of furniture in the hallway. “Athena, what are you doing?” He asks.

“I—I don’t know,” I say bringing the wood to my chest.

“Stop,” Klaus says.

“I can’t,” I say pressing the wood into my skin as my eyes start to tear up.

“Kol,” He says.

“What?” I question.

“Kol. He must’ve compelled you to make me stop looking for the cure or you’d—you’d,”

“Kill myself,” I say coming to the realization as I press the wood in further. Klaus rushes towards me and takes a hold of the wood, but I still don’t let go. “I know you’re not gonna stop and—and I don’t want to die. I’m...I’m scared, Nik” I say as I feel tears fall down my face. 

“It’s fine. You’re going to be fine,” He whispers. “I’ll sort this out. Let’s get to the Gilbert house,” Klaus says. Without a moment to process I find Klaus pulling me out of the house. 

As soon as we got there, the door was wide open and we could hear Kol screaming from inside. The next thing I know the urge to stake myself was gone, realizing that Kol’s dead. I dropped the stake as Klaus just looked at the Gilbert siblings from down the hall.

“What did you do?” Klaus asks them.

“W—we didn’t have a choice. He was trying to cut off Jeremy’s arm,” Elena explains.

“Lies,” Klaus growls through his teeth. “He never would’ve gotten inside if you hadn’t have set a trap for him,” Klaus says.

“You said you were gonna put him down, too,” Elena says. 

“I was gonna make him suffer on my terms!” Klaus yells. “I want to burn this house to the ground and then when you try to flee for your lives I’ll kill you both without blinking,” Klaus says.

“You kill us you’ll never get to the cure. You’ll never be able to make any more hybrids,” Jeremy says.

“You really think I care for an instant about my bloody hybrids? I want the cure so I can destroy it. I would’ve killed you all the second we dug it up, but now I’m just gonna watch you burn instead,” Klaus says.

“Then you’ll watch me burn too, because you don’t care about your bloody hybrids!” I say rushing in front of Jeremy and Elena.

“Athena, get out of there!” Klaus says before he kneels to the ground screaming. 

The next thing we see is Bonnie walking past him into the house, “Invite him in. Do it,” She says.

“Come in,” Jeremy says. As soon as Klaus is able to he pushes into the house, but still in pain from Bonnie.

“Living room. Go,” Bonnie says. Elena, Jeremy and I head to the living room and Klaus follows but is soon stopped by a barrier. 

He bangs on the invisible wall but there was no way through. Elena and Jeremy quickly move to leave the house and I follow. As they move Klaus tries to follow them, only to be greeted by Bonnie and another barrier, trapping him in the living room.

“Witch, you can’t do this to me,” Klaus says.

“You have no idea what I can do now,” Bonnie says.

“I will hunt all of you to your end! Do you hear me? Do you?” Klaus yells. We all start to head out of the house, “Athena Dumont!” I hear. 

Just to entertain him I walk back inside, “I thought you cared about me. I saw that today, but I’m just another one of you hybrids. I guess you’ll have to hunt me to my end,” I say reiterating what Klaus said before leaving the house, with a screaming Klaus stuck inside.

We all head to the Salvatore’s knowing it was the only other place to really go. Jeremy paces around the living room looking at his arm, “Didn’t work,” He says putting his sleeve down.

“It took time for Finn’s line to die off. Remember? It’ll work,” Bonnie says.

“What if it doesn’t,” Jeremy asks.

“Where’s that Gilbert optimism?” Damon asks coming into the room. Elena hugs him knowing that he wasn’t compelled anymore. “Sorry I missed all the excitement,” Damon says.

“I’m just happy to see you,” Elena says.

“Looks like I didn’t miss much,” Stefan says walking into the house. “Got the Silas headstone,” He says making his way into the room.

“We’re just waiting for Jeremy’s mark to grow, Klaus is trapped in our living room,” Elena says.

“Temporarily. I—uh drew on the new moon to bind the spell. Got three days to find that cure, four max,” Bonnie explains.

“If we don’t, we might as well lookup Katherine Pierce and see if she wants some company in hiding. Cause he will come after us,” Jeremy says.

“We’ll find it. Now that we’ve got Rebekah taken care of all we need is Professor Shane and we’ll have everything we need,” Elena says.

“Yeah, I didn’t, uh… I didn’t dagger her,” Stefan says.

“What? Why not?” Elena says clearly annoyed.

“I didn’t need to, she’s on our side,” Stefan says.

“On our side? D—Did you really just say that?” Elena asks.

“Yeah. She handed over the headstone. I mean, she wants to find this cure more than any of us,” Stefan says.

“Why would you possibly think that you could trust her?” Elena asks Stefan.

“Let me guess, she pledged her allegiance to you while you we naked in the sack,” Damon says, clearly setting off something within the group.

“I bet you’re just dying to get that out, weren’t you Damon,” Stefan says.

“Oh was that supposed to be a secret? Maybe you should be a little clearer while you were bleeding me dry in our cellar,” Damon says.

“Yeah. To keep you from killing Jeremy,” Stefan says.

“Stop it, both of you,” Elena tries to tell the brothers off.

“Now why don’t you tell her to calm down, Damon? You’ve managed to use that sire bond pretty well so far, haven’t you?” Stefan says. Before we knew it Damon took a punch at Stefan, sending him to the ground.

As Stefan was about to go for his brother, Jeremy starts to scream ripping his shirt off. Revealing a growing tattoo, “It’s happening,” Jeremy says.

“Oh my god,” Elena says.

“What? You can see it?” Jeremy asks, we all nod watching it grow across Jeremy’s body.

“Here we go,” Damon says. 

After we had taken in the fact that we now have the map to the cure and everyone calmed down, I decided to go to bed, “I’m heading up guys,” I say before leaving the group.

After I got ready I hear a knock on my door and open it to find Elena standing there, “Hey,” She says.

“Hey, what’s up?” I ask.

“I just wanted to check up on you, after tonight. And let you know our plan,” Elena explains.

“I’m fine,” I say letting her in.

“You sure? I saw the way you looked at him tonight and everything,” Elena says.

“It’s nothing, really,” I say trying to brush it off.

“Athena, I’m worried about you, really,” She says.

“I just...I found out what Kol compelled me to do. It scared me,” I say.

“What’d he compel you to do?” SHe asks.

“To—uh...kill myself if I didn’t convince Klaus to stop looking for the cure,” I say shakily.

“I’m sorry,” Elena says.

“And when Klaus and I figured it out. I—I told him I was scared and I didn’t want to die. And for a second, I saw a sliver of hope, that he would truly do anything to save me and to stop with all his craziness. Before he completely crushed it again. I really should stop letting him get to me, but it’s so hard to not let him,” I say starting to cry. Elena pulls me into a hug and doesn’t speak a word.

“You’ll get through this. We’ll get away from him,” She says.

“I don’t know if I want to. I don’t really know if I can. Klaus is never gonna let me go. You know that, I know that, we all know that. The only way we can make sure he’ll leave after all of his stupid cure business is over... is for me to go with him,” I say gettting more upset.

“And we’ll cross that bridge once we come to it. But first, we have to deal with getting the cure,” Elena says.

“You’re right. I just—I don’t know what to do,” I say. 

“And we’ll figure that out. Bonnie, Stefan, Damon, Rebekah, Jeremy, Professor Shane, and I are going to an island to find the cure. Do you want to come? Maybe get away from here?” Elena says.

“No...I’m good. I think I should just take some time for myself. Take a break from all of this,” I chuckle.

“Yeah...that’s a good idea,” Elena says.

“When are you guys heading out?” I ask.

“Tomorrow morning,” Elena says.

“Ok, I’ll say bye to you all tomorrow morning then,” I say.

“Sounds good. Night, Athena,” Elena says and heads out of the room.

“Night,” I respond.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This one was interesting to write, even though it’s a slight filler. Thanks for reading and I hope you all enjoyed!


	10. 32. Decoding a Cryptex

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post Date: 02.02.21
> 
> Word count: 2.2k
> 
> Based off: 04x13 “Into the Wild” | 04x14 “Down the Rabbit Hole”

The next morning I woke up to rustling throughout the house. Probably everyone getting ready for the trip. I get dressed and hurry down to make sure I can say goodbye before they leave. 

“Hey, guys,” I say heading down the stairs. No one really said anything as they were making sure they had everything they need.

“Hey, you sure you don’t want to come?” Elena asks. 

“Yeah, I just need a break,” I say.

“Ok, well don’t get in too much trouble here,” Elena says.

“Be careful out there,” I say. I say bye to everyone else as they head out of the door.

“I promise I won’t throw any crazy parties here or destroy it,” I say to the Salvatore brothers.

“Just be safe with everything going on,” Damon says.

“I think you need to hear that more than me,” I say before pushing him outside, knowing the strict schedule they’re on. 

Since there wasn’t much to do and Klaus was still locked away in Elena’s house I decided to have a chill day. I spent most of the day just relaxing and doing some drawings. As much as I hated it connected me to Klaus, it was still the only thing that could distract me, plus music.

Everything was quiet and calm until I got a from Tyler about an emergency at Elena’s house. The first thought that ran through my head was ‘what is he doing there?’, but the second was ‘if he’s calling, it’s bad’. As soon as I got there I found Caroline laying on the couch with Tyler next to her. 

“What the hell did you do?” I asked walking up to the barrier keeping Klaus in. Klaus didn’t speak a word but just smiled, with blood-stained teeth.

“He bit her,” Tyler says.

“You are soo lucky you’re stuck in there,” I say before turning to Caroline and Tyler.

“Oh my god. Oh my god,” Caroline says freaking out.

“Look at me. I can fix this,” Tyler says.

“How? The only thing that can heal me is his blood” She says looking at Klaus.

“I know. We’ll fix it,” I say trying to gain Caroline’s attention. She nods trying to keep calm. 

“She’ll die if you don’t heal her,” Tyler says.

“Okay,” Klaus says before biting into his own wrist. “Beg me to save her life,” He says presenting his wrist.

“Really Klaus?” I say.

“Is this what you want? To remind me that I’m powerless against you? Fine. You win. I’m nothing. Now, save her. Please,” Tyler says.

“I’m sorry, mate. I didn’t quite catch that,” Klaus says as I roll my eyes.

“Please,” Tyler repeats.

“Please…” Klaus trails off.

“Can you just stop with your petty bullshit, Klaus?” I say but he ignores me.

“Please, save her life,” Tyler repeat again.

“See, now I just think you’re telling me what I wanna hear. I mean you did call me pathetic earlier. And wouldn’t it be more pathetic of me to help now knowing that hours ago, you announced your plan to kill me in a manner in which you’re still debating because you want it to have a certain amount of flair? I’m just asking,” Klaus says.

“I’ll be your slave again,” Tyler says.

“Tyler, don’t,” I say.

“I’ll do whatever you want. Just help her,” Tyler says.

“No,” Klaus says coldly.

“Klaus! I swear on my life--” I say rushing towards him, but Tyler stops me. “Let me go!” I scream. 

“Just stop. Stop,” Tyler says. I shake him off of me.

“Get me out of here. I can’t even look at him” Caroline says. I help Tyler get her up and take her to the door.  
“Take her home,” I say.

“You’re not coming?” Tyler asks.

“I need to talk to him. Fight him, maybe. If it means he’ll heal her,” I say.

“Just be careful,” Caroline says.

“I will. I promise I’ll find a way,” I say and hug her before they leave the house. I turn around and walk towards Klaus.

“Yes, mon petit tournesol,” Klaus says.

“Don’t call me that,” I say.

“Well, you’re still here. Which means you want something,” He says sitting on the couch in his area.

“You know what I want. Because of you,” I say.

“Why do you care so deeply about these people? Why are you so hell-bent on helping them?” Klaus asks. 

“Because they’re my family. They care for me too. You know just as well as me, that I would do anything to save the people I care about. Just like you,” I say.

“But I’m your family too,” Klaus says.

“No. You burnt that bridge a long time ago,” I say.

“You burnt that bridge!” Klaus says coming face to face with me.

“I burnt that bridge?” I laugh. “You’re hilarious. Who’s the one that kidnapped me, forced me to trek the country with him? Who’s the one that killed my entire pack? Who’s the one that forced me to become a hybrid? And who’s the one that bit my friend?” I rant feeling the rage build inside me.

“Who’s the one that killed my brother?!” Klaus yells back, reminding me that I staked Finn. A few moments of silence passed as I try to figure out what to say next.

“Look. I can’t forgive you for what you’ve done and how much you’ve hurt me. I know you and I know you’ll do anything to save me, I saw that last night. But I also can’t forget how you threatened my friends on multiple accounts. But please. Please stop with this pettiness. Please save Caroline, if not for Tyler, who’s willing to do your bidding again. Then for me,” I say trying to hold tears back. 

“Athena...I--” Klaus says.

“Just think about it,” I say. I head back to the Salvatore house after checking up on Caroline and Tyler. The next morning Tyler calls me to tell me his plan. I spent the night worrying about what Klaus decided to do until I got a call from Tyler telling me that Caroline was ok. 

The next day they called me and asked me to meet them at Elena’s.

“Well, if it isn’t little orphan Lockwood. Come to show how laughably impotent you are against me?” Klaus says acting as if nothing had happened.

“Save it, Klaus,” I say following Caroline into the living room.

“I’m just trying to help my friends find the cure. Found this in your attic,” Tyler says showing the sword.

“And you think finding the sword brings you closer to the cure?” Klaus asks.

“You tell me. I was playing around with the handle on the ride over. And I found this,” Tyler says revealing a part of the hilt.

“And what do you think this is?” Klaus asks.

“It’s called a cryptex. I’ve seen ‘The Da Vinci Code’ You turn the different sides to the different symbols to get the translation on the other side and, with the magic of the internet, Elena sent over these,” Caroline says standing up from the couch and showing us the pictures of Jeremy’s tattoo.

“So now all we have to do is cryptex away. If you happened to want to help, we wouldn’t stop you,” I say looking to Klaus before spreading the picture out with Caroline.

“Right. Well, might I suggest using the magic of the internet to purchase an Aramaic-to-English dictionary from your nearest retailer?” Klaus says.

“Whats Aramaic?” Tyler asks looking at Caroline and I.

“It’s a dead language. It hasn’t been used since, like, biblical times,” Caroline answers.

“Qetsiyah’s native tongue, I’m guessing. You know, even if you had the best dictionary in the world, it could take days to translate...perhaps weeks,” Klaus says before saying something else in a different language.

“What does that mean?” Caroline asks.

“If only you spoke Aramaic,” Klaus says as all of us roll our eyes.

After looking at the photos and symbols of the tattoo we had a little something, “Ok this is it. We’ve translated all the symbols on the tattoo,” Caroline says.

“‘Passage inside...requires a young senator and a pretty flower,’” I say reading off the cards.

“None of this makes sense,” Caroline says as I continue to study some of the cards and Caroline inspects the sword again. We look over when Klaus starts to speak Aramaic again.

“‘Requires a powerful witch and a hunter in full bloom,’” Klaus translates into English.

“What are you doing?” Tyler questions.

“I don’t need to tell you my reasons. Caroline, bring my sword over here,” Klaus asks. Caroline brings the sword to Klaus but only allows him to read from it. “‘Silas rests on the far side, the means of his destruction at hand,’ Turn the cryptex to the right. Stop. The top of the hilt reveals a key to a nautical map. Turn it to the left. Now turn the other piece. Wait. There’s something else,” Klaus instructs Caroline before speaking in Aramaic.

“What does it mean?” I ask.

“Klaus, what does it mean?” Caroline asks annoyed at his smirk.

“There is only one dose,” Klaus says. Since it seemed like no one else had service Caroline called Rebekah to tell them what we figured out. She sends Rebekah the translation, while Klaus and Rebekah have a conversation. Unfortunately, Klaus, tells Rebekah there is only one dose before we quickly hang the phone up. Caroline and Tyler quickly make their way outside to figure out what to do next now that Rebekah knows there’s only one dose.

“Are you serious, Kalus?” I ask.

“What? I’m just looking out for my little sister. Making sure she gets what she wants,” Klaus says.

“God...you know how much work they did to find the cure?” I say.

“I helped though,” Klaus says. 

Before I could get another word out Caroline walks back in. She looks at me with a sad face, that lets me know that she wants to talk to Klaus alone. I head outside to find Tyler sitting on the swinging bench. As we wait for what happens we can hear it getting a little louder from inside. Out of my own curiosity, I decided to put my ear up to the door to hear what was being said.

“We all want the cure,” Caroline says.

“Do we? Do you?” Klaus asks.

“It doesn’t matter, there’s only one, it’s not like I’m gonna get it anyway,” Caroline says.

“But if you could...you wouldn’t would you? You prefer who you are now to the girl you once were. You like being strong, ageless, fearless. We’re the same, Caroline,” Klaus says.

“Then show me. You know how much I love Tyler. You can see how scared I am to lose him. Just as much as you are scared to lose Athena for good. If you and I are so similar, then show me compassion. Show him the mercy that I would show you,” Caroline says.

“Mercy...for Tyler? Very well. Tell him to leave town immediately. And tell him to run and hide in a place I will never find him,” Klaus says. I move away from the door letting what I just heard Klaus say sink in. As Caroline makes her way out she tells us what Klaus said, even though I heard the whole thing, except for the head start before Klaus kills Tyler. 

“Please be safe,” I say before I go into the house so Caroline and Tyler can say bye alone. I don’t say a word as I now know the whole deal. 

“Looks like the spell wore off,” Klaus says stepping past where the barrier used to be. He walks up to me, “ Just know. I will still do anything to ensure your safety,” Klaus says.

“But you still won’t listen to me,” I say coldly. 

“This is a time-sensitive project, love. When I get the cure, then we can live happily ever after,” Klaus says kissing my forehead. Except he doesn’t know that I don’t want that or chooses not to accept it.

I follow him out of Elena’s house finding Caroline crying on the bench, “How did you get out?” She asks.

“I fear something awful has befallen your friend Bonnie,” Klaus says moving to Caroline. I grab his arm as she stands up, not wanting anything to happen to Caroline again. “ Don’t worry. I won’t hurt you,” Klaus says. I slowly let go of his arm.

“You’ve done enough,” Caroline says.

“I’ve done more than enough. I’ve shown kindness, forgiveness, pity. Because of you Caroline,” Klaus says before turning to me. “ And you Athena, I know I can never right my wrongs with you, but I hope you’ll forgive me eventually. Because I’ll always be waiting for you. No matter how long it takes,,” He says before walking away.

“Are you ok?” I ask Caroline.

“Yeah, you?” She asks back.

“I’m fine. I just want to get this cure shit over with. Get Tyler home and get away from Klaus. But seeing as it is, I don’t know if he’ll let me,” I say.

“We’ll figure it out,” Caroline says and I nod.

“Girls night?” I suggest hoping we can try to get our minds off of the events of the night.

“That sounds like a good idea,” Caroline replies. We head to her house and try to take our minds off of what happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I know some of the lines between Klaus & Caroline are weird and point towards Klaroline. But I’m trying my hardest to avoid it, I just had a few lines that I needed to put in and I tried my best to fit it in with Athena and Klaus’ story. I hope this part made sense because I feel like it kinda doesn’t for them. Anyways I hope you all enjoyed this part. Thanks for reading.


	11. 33. Debrief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post Date: 02.09.21
> 
> Word count: 1.3k
> 
> Based off: 04x15 “Stand By Me”

The next morning Caroline and I head back over to Elena’s to clean up the mess. As we were scrubbing the floors Elena and others walk-in.

“Hey, you’re home,” Caroline says as I continue scrubbing the floor.

“We were trying to clean the burn mark where Kol--” I start before we both notice Stefan carrying Jeremy’s body. “We couldn’t get the spot out,” I say quieter.

“Come on. Let’s get him upstairs,” Elena says. Caroline and I look at each other confused before we start to clean again, giving them their space.

“How long has she been like that?” Caroline asks Stefan as he makes his way into the kitchen.

“Ever since we found his body. She hasn’t said anything except that she’s waiting for him to wake up,” Stefan explains while helping.

“But he’s not going to wake up. She knows that right?” I state. Stefan puts his finger to his mouth and moves to the sink to turn the faucet on.

“Look. Deep down, I think she has to, but we’re talking about Elena here. She feels grief more powerfully than anyone else. I think her denial is the one thing protecting her from letting it all in,” Stefan explains.

“She can’t stay like that forever,” Caroline says.

“I know, but I don’t want to be the one to break her out of it, not until we know that bonnie is safe, not until we get Damon over here too, you know--,” Stefan trails off.

“Use the sire bond to convince her that everything is ok?” Caroline finishes for him.  
“I’m not in denial,” Elena says and Stefan turns the water off. “I know that he was supernatural, but did you see? His tattoo is gone. The tattoo had the spell that opened Silas’ chamber. Maybe it being gone means that he fulfilled his supernatural destiny. Maybe he’s back to normal, it’s possible right?” Elena suggests.

“Elena--” I say.

“It’s possible, Athena. There’s a chance. It may be minuscule, but it’s hope, and I’m gonna hold on to that hope with everything that I’ve got because there’s no way-- there’s absolutely no way that my brother is dead. I’m not in denial,” Elena states before walking away.

I continue to finish cleaning while Stefan and Caroline step outside to make a plan. After a little while, I start to smell something. “What’s that smell?” I ask making my way to the porch.

“It’s his body. He’s starting to decompose,” Stefan says. “Tell your mom to get Dr. Fell over here,” Stefan says to Caroline.

Dr. Fell came over to inspect Jeremy’s body, but as she inspected it I heard a commotion from upstairs. Elena was freaking out over Dr. Fell saying that Jeremy was dead. I head outside since it was a family matter that I don’t think I should involve myself in. As I wait for Dr. Fell to finish, Caroline arrives at the house on the phone with Bonnie and Damon arriving shortly after.

“Thank god,” Caroline says.

“We were so worried,” I say as we take turns hugging Bonnie.

“I’m ok,” Bonnie says.  
“Could you get Stefan out here?” Damon asks.

“They said that she knows what to do,” Caroline says.

“Caroline, I need to talk to my brother,” Damon demands.

“What’s wrong?” I ask. I head back inside with Caroline and Bonnie to talk about what happened. Me, Bonnie, Caroline, Elena and Matt all sit at the table.

“It’s called an expression triangle. I need to complete it for Silas,” Bonnie explains.

“What? Bonnie, you can’t kill 12 people,” Matt says.

“I know it sounds crazy, but it’s the only way to get enough power,” Bonnie says.

“To do what?” I ask.

“Once the veil is dropped, the other side doesn’t exist anymore. There’s nothing separating us. We’re all just one,” Bonnie explains.

“Bonnie, you are talking like a crazy person. You are not killing 12 people, and you sure as hell can’t invite every monster who has every died back in this world,” Caroline says.

“Caroline, I think she knows that,” Matt says.

“No. I can do it. I have the power. I can bring everyone back-- Jeremy, Alaric, Vicki,” Bonnie says.

“Bonnie, stop it you can’t just say these things,” Caroline says before a phone rings.

“I’ll get it,” Elena says.

“Hey, look. I’ll get it,” Matt offers.

“I said i’ll get it,” Elena says moving to the phone. As she answers the phone Damon and Stefan walk in. “Jeremy can’t come to the phone right now. He’s not...I’m sorry. He’s dead,” Elena says before hanging up. She then heads upstairs leaving us a bit clueless.

A few minutes later Elena comes back downstairs, “Where Bonnie?” She asks.

“We told Matt to take her home. We thought it’d be best,” Stefan says.

“Ok. Guess we’re gonna have to do this the old fashioned way,” Elena says.

“Do what?” I ask.

“Put his body on the couch,” Elena says.

“Elena? Elena, you need help finding something?” Caroline asks.

“Got it,” Elena says immediately dumping gas onto her kitchen countertop.

“What are you doing?” Stefan asks.

“We need a cover story right? You think I didn’t hear you guys talking earlier? Well, what are we gonna say--animal attack, tumble down thw stairs? No. We burn the house down with him inside of it,” Elena says dumping the gas all over her house.

“Elena, stop it,” Stefan says.

“Why, because you want me to not be in denial? You want me to face the truth? This is the truth, Stefan. I don’t want to live here anymore. I don;t want these sketches. I don’t want this x-box. Not gonna need this bourbon anymore. Alaric’s not here to drink it, i mean, unless you guys are willing to bring back every supernatural creature on the other side to get him back. Would you? I know you want your drinking buddy back. Would you, Damon? Because I wouldn’t. I don’t know. I mean, does that make me a bad person? I have no idea,” Elena rants while spreading alcohol around the room and on Jeremy. “He’s not gonna need that anymore,” She tosses Damon the Gilbert ring.

“Elena, stop it. You’re scaring me,” I say.

“What else are we supposed to do with the body, Athena? I mean there’s no room in the Gilbert family plot. Jenna and John took the last spots,” Elena says lighting a match.

“No,no. Elena stop,” Stefan says.

“There’s nothing here for me anymore, Stefan. Every inch of this house is filled with memories of the people that I love that have died--my mom, my dad, Jeremy, and Jenna, and Alaric, John, evern John. I mean they’re all dead. Everyone is dead. So what and I supposed to--I mean how am I--I can’t even--There’s nothing left for me. Ahh!” Elena says and drops the match but Damon catches it before it hits the ground.

“Elena I need you to calm down,” Damon says.

“No, no, no. I can’t. I can’t. I can’t. I--. No It hurts. It hurts. Just make it stop. Please make it stop. It hurts,” Elena sobs.

“Damon...help her,” Stefan says. Damon quickly kneels next to her and embraces her.

“I can help you. I want you to let me help you. I can help you,” Damon says.  
“How?” Elena asks.

“Turn it off,” Damon says.

“What? No, no,” Stefan says under his breath.

“Just turn it off, and everything will go away. That’s what you have to do. It’s what I want you to do. Just turn it off,” Damon says and just like that Elena was no longer sobbing.

After everything seemed to be sorted, even though none of us wanted Elena to turn her humanity off. I decided to head out. I went back to the Salvatores to grab my stuff before making my way to my own house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I know the scene at the dining table is a bit awkward, there was three convos stitched together in the show….so i hope it makes sense. I may or may not skip the next few eps in case they don’t have much of an impact on Athena’s story. Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed.


	12. 34. The Final Location

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post Date: 02.16.21
> 
> Word count: 2.6k
> 
> Based off: 04x17 “Because the Night” || 04x18 “American Gothic”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This part is quite a doozy for Klaus and Athena. I decided to stick the two eps together because the 04x18 scenes I picked were fairly short and I wanted to share the piece of info that reveals a bit about them. I hope you enjoy!

Even though I wasn’t present for the little party Elena decided to throw. I thought it’d be nice to help Caroline clean the Salvatore house up. After I got ready I head over. As soon as I made my way in I could see why Caroline needed my help.

“It looks like a tornado blew through here,” I say walking into the house.

“Tell me about it,” Caroline says taking a sip from a random cup. 

“Well, what can I help with? Well, I mean where can I start?” I ask.

“Anywhere. The trash bags are in the kitchen,” Caroline says. I head to the kitchen and grab a trash bag. As I head back into the main room I hear a voice I’m not particularly keen on hearing. 

“Tyler made it his life’s mission to kill me. You can’t hate me for driving him away,” Klaus says.

“She can and so can I,” I say walking into the room. Klaus looks up at me, almost with a guilty expression, but I just write it off as Klaus being broody.

“Hello, love,” Klaus says almost returning to his normal self.

“Now if you don’t mind, I’d like to get back to spiraling, so go away,” Caroline says.

“Actually, I asked him to be here. We need his help. I think Silas is in Mystic Falls,” Stefan says walking up next to me. Stefan explains the situation to us as we continue to clean up.

“So some blood went missing from a few hospitals. What about Elena? Don’t vampires with their humanity off tend to overindulge in human blood, or were you the exception?” Klaus says turning to Stefan.

“It’s not Elena,” Stefan says.

“Well, let’s just say for a moment that it was Silas. I’m struggling to see how this affects me,” Klaus says sitting down.

“Look. Silas wants to die and be reunited with his one true love, but he’s supernatural, so if he takes the cure and dies, he gets stuck on the other side,” Stefan explains.

“How Shakespearian,” Klaus responds taking a sip of his drink.

“But if he destroys the other side altogether, he can take the cure, die, and pass on, but in destroying it, every dead supernatural being will return to our side,” Stefan explains further.

“That means every werewolf, every witch, every vampire,” Caroline starts.

“Every hybrid,” I add.

“I wonder how many of those you personally killed. Care yet?” Caroline finishes.

“My interest is piqued. How do we stop him?” Klaus asks.

“Bonnie said Silas needs to complete 3 massacres to do this spell. Before Professor Shane died, he convinced the pastor to blow up the council. Next, he had you kill your hybrids, and now he only needs one more massacre. So if he’s here, that’s what he’s doing. We need to find him,” Stefan says.  
“So what’s the play?” I ask.

“We look to see if Shane had any info we didn’t know,” Stefan says. We all nod and head to Shane’s office.

“What are we even looking for?” Caroline asks as we walk in.

“Well, If Shane really was working with Silas, chances are he was helping him plan his next move,” Stefan says as we look around.

“Where, on his evil villain to do list-- steal blood, perform 3 massacres, pick up dry cleaning?” Caroline says.

“Actually not to nit-pick, but we evil villains usually use minions to pick up our dry cleaning, that sort of thing,” Klaus says.

“Why is he necessary again?” I ask.

“I second that,” Caroline says.

“Well, we don’t know what Silas can do, so if we do have to go head to head with him, an original hybrid who can’t die might come in handy,” Stefan explains.

“Would a hybrid who doesn’t want her friends to die be a good enough substitute? Cuz you got one right here,” I say raising my hand.

“Sorry love. But I’m not letting you go head to head with another immortal being,” Klaus says.

“Was I asking you? Was I asking him?” I ask looking at Caroline and Stefan.

“Besides the point. Stefan and I work well together, or at least we did in the Twenties,” Klaus says.

“Well, granted my emotions were off,” Stefan says.

“And that’s why you were way more fun. Just as Damon is probably relishing in Elena’s emotionless company in New York,” Klaus says.

“My brother knows what he’s doing,” Stefan says.

“Does he? Don’t underestimate the allure of darkness, Stefan. Even the purest of hearts are drawn to it,” Klaus says looking over at me. “Still, I’m sure it will all be fine,” 

“I think I found something,” I say looking at the book I have in my hand. “‘Symbolic Figures in the Dark Arts’ Didn’t Bonnie talk about expression triangles?” I say bringing the book to the desk and pointing to the picture on the page I had open.

“‘In some schools of magic such as expression, human sacrifice can be used as a focus for power. It’s rumored that the addition of two supernatural sacrifices compounds the mystical energy creating an expression triangle,’” Stefan reads.

“Humans, that was the council fire. Demons, Klaus’ hybrid failure,” Caroline says.

“Well, I wouldn’t exactly call it a failure. What’s the third?” Klaus says wanting to move past the statement.

“Oh, no. Witches,” Caroline says.

“Great. I can’t believe Bonnie is gonna go through with this,” I say.

“Well, we need to figure out where it’s gonna happen. I’m gonna see if I can find or contact Bonnie,” Stefan says and leaves the room.

“Is there a map?” Caroline asks. We look around and Klaus finds one and sets it on the desk.

“There’s been two massacres. Pastor Young’s Farm,” I say and Caroline points to where it is on the map and I make an X.

“And the old Lockwood cellar. Where you spitefully slaughtered 12 of your own hybrids is here,” Caroline and points to the cellar. I make another X and draw a line to connect them.

“According to the book, the expression triangle is equilateral, putting it here,” I say drawing an X and two lines to find where the witch massacre would happen.

“Somebody’s been skipping their geometry classes. There are actually two places where the massacre could be,” Klaus says and draws another triangle below mine.

“Well, you didn’t let me finish,” I say.

“Hey. What’s going on? Did you find Bonnie?” Caroline asks as Stefan walks into the room.

“No, but I talked to her dad. I think I found Silas,” Stefan says. We all split up to find which location where the massacre was taking place.

“I just want to see where we are,” I say as Klaus and I walk through the forest.

“You know, when we split up, you did have the option of going with Stefan and Caroline,” Klaus says.

“I don’t think so. If I recall the conversation correctly. You said ‘Athena and I will go together’ and then you whisked me away...again. You know is this just another one of your little ploys to get me talking to you alone, and not about Silas or the cure, right?” I ask but get no response. “Do you know how to read a map?” I ask.

“Yes, and do you know who taught me? My friend Magellan,” Klaus says.

“I didn’t know you could make multiple friends. Was he drawn to your darkness too?” I ask.

“Actually, I was referring to Damon and Elena when I said that, but clearly it struck a chord with you,” Klaus says.

“It’s because it’s not true. There’s no allure to darkness,” I say.

“Really?” Klaus says and turns to me. “So you’ve never felt the attraction that comes when someone who’s capable of doing terrible things for some reason only cares about you?” Klaus asks me.

“Are you referring to you and me?! Because I never knew this side of you until you decided to rain all hell on my family and friends. And before you say anything about Ray’s pack, they were my family. They’re the ones who helped me become the person I am today. The fearless werewolf you decided to make a hybrid of your own will, not mine. So no, I don’t know the feeling you’re talking about, because the man that I knew you as was the one who loved me unconditionally. I heard the stories, but I only saw the good in you, until you decided to mix me up in your supernatural--I don’t even know what this is,” I say feeling a tear fall down my face.

“We’re here, although judging by the lack of witches, here is not the correct location,” Klaus says. We start to head to the other location where Caroline and Stefan went to.

“They’re linked. Bonnie’s gonna kill them,” Stefan says.

“Not if the witches kill her first,” Klaus says.

“Klaus we need to save her,” I say after he pushes Stefan against a tree.

“How? The only way to stop the witches is to kill them, and then Silas gets what he wants,” Klaus says.

“Spirits, take her soul. Free her from darkness,” One of the witches says holding a knife above Bonnie. Caroline doesn’t hesitate for a moment before stabbing the witch with her own knife, stopping the ritual.

“No!” Klaus yells. All the other witches die, completing the expression triangle.

“The triangle is complete,” Bonnie says. We quickly get Bonnie and head out of the location. After we made sure Bonnie was safe, I headed back to my house, trying to take in what happened tonight.

“Hey. How’s Bonnie,” I say answering the phone.

“She’s fine. But she doesn’t remember anything past the island,” Stefan explains.

“I’m just glad she’s ok,” I say.

“Me too. I’m gonna let Caroline know,” Stefan says before hanging up. 

The next morning I was going to head out to check on Bonnie until I noticed an unnatural amount of messages on my phone from Klaus. Knowing he wouldn’t leave me alone with this many messages, I thought I’d go see what he wanted.

“I got you messages...All of them. This better be life and death,” I say walking into Klaus’ mansion.

“Go away,” I hear Klaus say.

“Klaus? Where are you?” I say. I walk towards where I heard his voice until I saw him clenching the piano seat on the ground. “What happened to you?” I ask as it looked like he was in pain.

“I need more time. Stop hounding me!” Klaus yells.

“Excuse me? You messaged me more times than I can count,” I reply.

“Athena. Is it really you?” Klaus asks shakily.

“Of course it is,” I respond. Klaus sighs in relief. He struggles to sit on the piano seat but manages to anyways.

“Prove it to me,” Klaus says.

“I really don’t have time for you to want to solve our relationship problem right now. I have more important things to deal with,” I say before turning around.

“Wait, please. Silas. He stabbed me with a white oak stake. There’s a little piece of it stuck inside of me,” Klaus explains.

“Why would Silas attack you?” I ask.

“Well, I was in no position to ask questions. Suffice it to say, I’m hurt. So you can understand why I called you,” Klaus says.

“I’m not really sure what I could do to help you,” I respond.

“If I die, you, Caroline, Tyler, all of your friends die with me,” Klaus says.

“Fine, just tell me what to do,” I say.

“Well, it’s quite simple, really. I need you to cut the stake out of me,” Klaus says pointing to the already bloody shears on the floor. I pick up the shears and Klaus turns around so I could start to try and get the stake out.

“I swear there’s nothing in here,” I say before digging a little deeper. Klaus screams and slams his hand against the piano. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry... You know what, I’m not,” I say ripping the shears out. “I’ve already got my hands full with helping my friends and you trying to pine for me is not helping. So if you want my help, stop getting in the way,” I say. I move to the couch as Klaus struggles to try to get the stake out himself.

“I can feel the splinters moving towards my heart. Help me!” Klaus yells.

“Will you stop getting in the way?” I ask.

“You really think I’m just going to stop getting in the way when your life could be in danger?” Klaus asks.

“And you know how many times my life was in danger because of you? If you want to get in the way, why can’t you just do something decent for once?” I ask back.

“Because Tyler Lockwood tried to kill me,” Klaus says.

“We’ve all tried to kill you. Hell, I even put you down for a time. But you’ve tried to kill most of us. Why are you going through all this effort to keep me safe when I don’t even need you to. You made me who I am, so why am I not strong enough to protect myself?” I ask. 

“Because I can’t lose you again!” Klaus yells.

“And I’m strong enough to protect myself, hybrid or not. Why can’t you see that?” I ask.

“Because I lost you the first time I met you! You...you we’re in my arms and I let you slip away,” Klaus says.

“Because I wanted to,” I responded.

“No...no. The first time we met. The very first time,” Klaus says confusing me.

“What do you mean? I didn’t even know who you were when we met,” I say. 

“It’s gone,” Klaus says quieter, ignoring my question.

“What?” I ask.

“The pain. The pain is gone,” Klaus says feeling his back. “Oh, see, it was never there. He got in my head. Silas got inside my head,” Klaus says shakily. “You took my mind off it. You brought me back, Athena,” Klaus says cupping my cheek with his hand.

I move his hand off of my face, “If Silas can make you of all people, believe that you’re dying...what can he do to the rest of us?” I ask. Klaus goes to clean himself up, leaving me to process and figure out what Klaus meant by the “very first time” we met while I cleaned myself up.

“I’m heading back to mine,” I say walking past Klaus.

“Hey,” He grabs my arm and pulls me to face him. “Thank you for helping me,” Klaus says.

“Of course. Just don’t think I’ll come running every time you scream for help. And don’t spam my phone either” I say.

“Promise,” Klaus smiles.

“I just have one question. What did you mean by the very first time we met? When was that? I remember the first time we met, we bumped into eachother when I was leaving a cafe,” I say.

“My love. That is a story for a different day, but I promise I’ll tell you one day,” Klaus says and kisses my forehead.

“So you’re just gonna leave me guessing?” I ask.

“There are more pressing matters right now. But I promise I’ll tell you soon,” He says. 

“Fine. But you can’t break that promise, seriously,” I say.

“Promise. Can I ask you a question?” He asks and I nod. “Will you ever love me again?”

“Uhh...I--I can’t really answer that question right now. That’s pretty loaded. But I’ll think about it. I uh guess,” I say and head out.


	13. 35. Not so Magical Prom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post Date: 02.23.21
> 
> Word count: 1.6k
> 
> Based off: 04x19 “Pictures of You”

The next morning I went out to shop for a prom dress with Caroline and Bonnie. We head over to the boutique so I could pick a dress out and Caroline could try on hers.

We browsed the dresses and as soon as I saw a deep purple satin dress, I knew I should try it on.

“That’s perfect,” Caroline says.

“You look beautiful,” Bonnie agrees. As soon as we picked my dress out Caroline went to get hers on.

“What kind of dreams?” I ask as we make it out of the dressing room.

“Usually I’m at his grave, and all of a sudden he appears to me,” Bonnie explains her dreams of Jeremy.

“Well, you never got to say goodbye, Bon. You’re grieving. That’s normal,” Caroline says while looking at herself in the mirror.

“When I woke up, the couch was on fire,” Bonnie says.

“Oh,” Caroline says.

“Not so normal,” I say.

“I don’t know if it’s because I was emotional in my dream or if Shane was right. Without his help, I’ll lose control of my magic,” Bonnie says.

“No. It’s because you need a night off from mourning. And I’m gonna make sure that you have it,” Caroline says.

“You look super hot, by the way,” I say.

“Do you think?” Caroline says smiling.

Oh, yeah,” Bonnie agrees.

“Yeah?” Caroline asks again.

“Yeah, Matt, Athena, and I are gonna have the sexiest date there,” Bonnie says and we all laugh.

“You know what? I love friend prom. And it’s exactly what prom should be friends and memories. Yes, and it sucks that my boyfriend can’t be here, but the four of us are gonna have the night of our lives,” Caroline says.

“Hey, Bonnie. Heard you got your mind-wiped. That sucks. Pretty dress, Caroline,” Elena says walking in with Rebekah of all people.

“I know. You helped me pick it out months ago when we were friends, before you tried to kill me,” Caroline says annoyed.

“I thought it looked familiar,” Elena says.

“Can you press this for me? I’ll pick it up later. Bonnie, Athena,” Caroline says before we head back to the dressing room. As soon as we were done with our errands I head back to mine before getting ready for prom.

“Hello,” I say answering the phone.

“Hey, I have a major problem,” Caroline says.

“What’s up?” I ask.

“Elena stole my dress. Do you think you could help?” Caroline asks.

“Well, I don’t have any dresses in my closet. But I might know who will. Meet me at Klaus’,” I say. As soon as we meet up at Klaus’ we head inside.

“Klaus?” I say throughout the mansion.

“Klaus!” Caroline says louder. “Klau--” Caroline says before we see him standing in front of a fireplace.

“Hello. Did you not hear us?” I ask.

“Of course I heard you two. I think the whole of Mystic Falls heard you. I’m in no mood for company,” Klaus says.

“Well I’m sorry that you’re having personal issues, but I have a real crisis on my hands. Elena stole my prom dress. I went to pick it up, and the tailor said that somebody else already did. And when I asked who, she said she couldn’t remember. Hello? The vervain is out of the town water supply, she was compelled, ” Caroline says, but Klaus just laughs. “It is not funny,” Caroline says annoyed.

“I know. I know,” Klaus says.

“Then stop laughing,” I say.

“Look, I know that prom isn’t important to you, but it’s important to me,” Caroline says.

“Surely finding another dress is well within your substantial vampire capabilities,” Klaus says.

“But I don’t want just another dress. I want to look hot, like princess grace of Monaco hot,” Caroline says.

“And me using my supernatural capabilities brought her here. So, could you please go back into your creepy trophy case of family collectibles and dig us out something of royal caliber?” I ask. Klaus thankfully agrees and brings allows us to rummage through the dresses he has. As Caroline tried on a few dresses I waited for her to find the perfect one.

“You don’t want to find a dress of your own?” Klaus asks me.

“I already have one,” I say.

“I bet you’d look stunning in any of these,” Klaus says bruising his hand along the dresses.

“Like I said, I already have one,” I say and look down. “Uhh… thanks for doing this. Prom isn’t the most important thing in the world to me, but I know it is for Caroline and it makes me feel like I’m living a more or less normal life,” I say.

“Anything for you,” Klaus smiles. Caroline walks out in a stunning white dress.

“That’s the one. You look hot,” I say.

“It’s perfect. Thanks again Klaus,” Caroline says before going to change into her regular clothes again. We head downstairs and Caroline goes to put the dress in her car.

“I’ll meet you there in a moment,” I say to Caroline and stop at the front door with Klaus.

“Have fun tonight,” Klaus says.

“I’ll try. Thanks for actually doing something decent,” I say.

“It was a simple request,” Klaus says and I hit his arm. “What?” Klaus chuckles.

“Seriously thanks though. I have to go or Caroline will kill me if we’re even later than we already are,” I say and head to Caroline’s car.

“Athena?” Kalus asks.

“Yeah?” I ask back, before I knew it Klaus pulled me into a hug. “What was that for?” I ask pulling away.

“Go have fun,” Klaus says.

“Uhh...ok. Bye,” I say and get into Caroline’s car.

“What was that?” Caroline asks as she starts to drive to my house.

“I--I couldn’t tell you even if I knew,” I say. We arrive at my house and get ready before heading to the venue.

As soon as we walk in we see couples dancing and people having fun, “You did great as always,” I say smiling at Caroline.

“So how do I look?” Elena asks coming up to us in Caroline’s old dress.

“Are you kidding me? You look like a backstabbing bi--” Caroline starts before Stefan walks up behind Elena. Reminding us of the plan to “kill her with kindness”. “The dress is beautiful, and it brings out your eyes,” Caroline corrects herself.

“Thanks. I thought I’d do it a favor,” Elena says.

“Caroline, why don’t you come dance with me?” Stefan asks as soon as Caroline was about to speak again. Caroline takes Stefan’s hand and they walking onto the dance floor.

“You look lovely tonight,” I say to Elena before walking off to be someplace where she’s not.

“Hey,” Matt says as I walk past him.

“Hey,” I say back.

“Have you seen Bonnie?” He asks.

“No, I just got here. Is everything ok?” I respond.

“Yeh, I just wanted to know where she went off to,” Matt says.

“Aren’t you on ‘save Elena’ duty?” I ask Damon as he walks up to me.

“I’m taking a little breather,” Damon says.

“This prom sucks. This is our last dance together and it’s awful. This is not how I wanted to remember this night” Caroline says walking up to us. Damon doesn’t say a word and offers his small flask to her. “Thank you,” Caroline says and takes a sip from it. “Well, if anyone asks, I’ll be at the after-party,” She says and walks away.

“We have a problem,” Bonnie says coming up to Damon and me. We gathered Matt and Stefan. “It’s like Jeremy was there. I could talk to him, feel him,” Bonnie says.

“Bonnie, that’s what Silas does. You can’t let him get to you again,” Stefan says.

“Yeah, because you all crazy and brainwashed it’s just not a good look,” Damon says.

“Hey. Ok, the ballots have been tallied, which means it’s time to announce this year’s prom King and Queen,” April says from the stage.

“Look, one of us should take her home,” Stefan says.

“What? No. She’s safer here in public around all these people. There’s no way Silas can make everyone see the same thing all at once,” Damon says.

“Ok, in the meantime, how do we look out for a guy that can appear as anyone?” Matt asks.

“All right. You’re prom king and queen are Matt Donovan and Bonnie Bennett,” April says as a spotlight shines on them. We all clap and they head up to the stage. After they were done taking pictures a gust of wind blew through before sparks started to fly. Matt and I quickly make our way to where Bonnie head off.

“Bonnie,” Matt says.

“Something’s happening to me,” Bonnie says.

“Ok, just relax,” I say.

“No, I got to get out of here,” She says before leaving and I follow after. I tried to keep following her but I just felt a pain in my head and before I knew it she was gone. I head out of the venue and find the Salvatore brothers, Bonnie and Elena in the parking lot.

“What happened?” I ask coming up to them as Bonnie leaves.

“Bonnie almost killed Elena,” Stefan says.

“I should check on her,” I say walking towards Bonnie.

“No. I think she needs to be alone,” Stefan says stopping me. Damon helps Elena up and before anything else happened Stefan shot Elena with vervain. “We need to get her back to ours,” He says.

“Plan B?” I ask and the boys nod. 

“Come on. Let’s get her home,” Damon says.

“You need a ride?” Stefan asks.

“Yeah, my place is fine,” I say.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Just a short filler. I plan to skip a few eps so if the next part starts weird that why. Also, ik the title is weird but I meant it as prom wasn't how it normally is supposed to be. Thank for reading, I hope you enjoyed!


	14. 36. Rite of Passage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Post Date: 03.02.2021
> 
> Word count: 1.9k
> 
> Based off: 04x23 “Graduation”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So I decided to skip the two eps before this. I just wasn't sure how to write Athena into it and I really wanted to get the TO, but it still did happen.

After Bonnie had activated the expression triangle, we still had to attend graduation, which was out of our hands. Even with all the ghosts of the supernatural running around. I went to the school to pick up my cap and gown as Caroline handed them out.

“You know what’s going on?” I ask Caroline.

“No, but I was about to call Bonnie and figure out what she’s doing. I mean she should be here right now,” Caroline says taking her phone out.

“I hit kind of a snag,” I hear Bonnie say over the phone.

“A snag? A snag is a bad yearbook picture. You hit a tsunami. Where are you?” Caroline asks.

“Trying to fix it. I’m running into some trouble. I need to wait until the full moon tonight to have enough power to put the veil back up,” Bonnie explains.

“Are you telling me that we might graduate right smack in the middle of a ghost-filled expression triangle?” Caroline asks.

“Maybe we should just cancel,” Bonnie says.

“No! We are not going to cancel. Graduation is the most important event of our lives, the last ceremony of our youth. It is our rite of freaking passage! Hell will freeze over before I let anyone cancel graduation,” Caroline says.

“Can you not make jokes about hell freezing over? We’re not that far off from that already,” Bonnie says.

“Just promise that today is a friend day,” Caroline says.

“Ok. I promise. I love you,” Bonnie says.

“I love you too,” Caroline says and hangs up.

“I think Bonnie will solve it,” I say.

“Yeah. I know. I just want today to be perfect,” Caroline says.

“Just like any other special event,” I smile. “Well if I could help in making that day more perfect, is there anything I can do?” I ask.

“Just show up,” Caroline says.

“I promise,” I say and hug her before leaving the school.

~Just before graduation~

“Where is everyone?” Caroline asks as I stand in line waiting with Bonnie.

“I’m here,” Matt says running up to us.

“Where have you been?” Caroline asks Matt.

“Oh, you know, making plans for the summer dodging death by vampire hunter,” Matt says.

“Where’s Elena? We can’t do this without her,” Bonnie asks.

“I’m here,” Elena says coming up to us with Stefan.  
“I can’t believe it. We’re actually all here. We are all here together!” Caroline says excitedly. “Bonnie Bennett, are you crying?” Caroline asks.

“It’s our last hurrah before you guys go off to college,” Bonnie says.

“Before ‘we’ go off to college,” Caroline says.

“I kind of sort of missed the deadline, you know being an emotionless bitch,” Elena says.

“The perks of being a vampire--we can go wherever we want to go. We can choose our own roommates, we could get a quad room!” Caroline says.

“I didn’t really plan to go to college. I still want to travel. But I promise to visit wherever you guys go,” I say.

“Fine. Triple room. But you better visit, Athena,” Caroline says.

“I’m happy we’re all here,” Bonnie says.

“Aw!! Group hug!” Caroline says putting her arms out.

“Ah..I--I don’t hug,” Stefan says.

“Oh! Get over yourself,” I say laughing into the hug. 

We sit in our seats and wait for the ceremony to start. “Welcome parents, family, and friends. What a beautiful day for graduation. Thank you for joining us today on this special day. As we celebrate our graduates, so let’s get started,” Mayor Hopkins says. He starts to list names off as the other students head up to get their diploma. I head up to grab my diploma after Matt as everyone congratulates me on stage.  
As the names continued to be called Caroline got the other’s attention and they head behind the bleachers. Even though I was out of the loop a bit, I still wanted to help in any way I could so I follow them. As soon as I made my way to them a searing pain began in my head.

“Remember us, Caroline?” The witch that Caroline killed says. Soon enough it stopped as the woman’s head is chopped off with a cap.

“There are plenty more of these to go around. Who’s next? I can do this all day,” Klaus says from behind Caroline. The rest of the gang head out as the ceremony ended as I went back to mine to get out of my graduation clothes. 

~On the field at night~

“How’d you get here so fast?” I ask Klaus as he walks up to me.

“I was already on my way. I received your graduation announcement. Figured it wasn’t your style. Caroline must have sent it for you. I assume you’re expecting cash,” Klaus says.

“I told her there wasn’t anyone I could send one to. I guess she thought otherwise. And no, I don’t really expect anything,” I chuckle.

“I had considered offering you a first-class ticket to join me in New Orleans, but I figured I knew what your answer would be, so I opted for something I knew you would accept,” Klaus said confusing me a bit. “The story of the first time we met. The one you don’t remember,” Klaus says.

“So he finally decided to stop being ominous,” I say.

“This isn’t my preferred place to tell you the story, but it’ll do. The night your house burnt down, 14 years ago. It wasn’t the fire department that saved you. It was me. Your parents told me to take you first. I tried to save them but the house had collapsed by the time I was going to get them,” Klaus explains.

“So you knew my parents?” I ask feeling tears start to run down my face.

“Yes. That night they knew something bad was going to happen. They called me to help, but I got there too late, the house was already on fire. I got there in time to pull you out, but not them,” Klaus says.

“And I forgot it was you. Should I chalk it up to me being four? Or did you compel me?” I ask.

“I--I compelled you. And the rest of the people there. That’s why it says in the papers the firemen saved you,” He says.

“Why?” I ask.

“I couldn’t risk exposing myself,” He says.

“So if it was you who saved me. Why give me to the adoption services?” I ask.

“With my lifestyle, I couldn’t have you running around,” He says.

“Makes sense,” I respond.

“But, I did promise your parents one thing. That I would always look out for you and protect you. You may had never seen me, but I was there always looking out for you,” Klaus says.  
“You were “K”, weren’t you. Sending me the money and things I always needed. I assume you were the one who always got me out of those bad foster homes,” I ask.

“Yes,” Klaus chuckles. 

“Did you know it was me, the little girl you saved? When you met me?” I ask.

“No. No, I had no idea. You were just some random girl who kept popping up,” Klaus chuckles.

“So you only knew me on paper. What made you keep coming back to me? You clearly didn’t really want to meet me,” I say.

“Well, after you told me your name and kept popping up wherever I was. I couldn’t get you out of my head,” He says.

“Me either,” I smile. “So, me, plain old me. The little girl you saved and kept safe. Was the random girl you bumped into outside a coffee shop, that you never imagined you’d fall in love with,” I say.

Klaus smiles, “I may had not been there for you or been your first love. But I intend to be your last, however long it takes,” Klaus says before pressing his lips to mine. “Now. Let’s get out of here before 12 angry hybrids decide to pick a fight,” Klaus says as we walk off the field.

“Can I just ask one more question?” I ask.

“Of course,” he says.

“If you knew my parents. What do you know about the rest of my family?” I ask.  
“A lot. But that is another story for another day, my love,” Klaus says.

“Nik. If you know anything that will bring me closer to them. Please, tell me,” I stop walking. 

“Athena. I will do anything to help you, but I don’t think you’ll accept the offer I’m about to make,” Klaus says.

“An offer? Does that mean I need to do something in return? Because I will do anything to learn about my family and my pack. I’ve only gotten as far as my name and this necklace,” I say touching the pendant around my neck.

“I won’t force you. But I have information about your pack and family at my home in New Orleans. If you would like to join me there, I wouldn’t complain. But if you don’t want to come I understand and won’t make you,” Klaus says.

“So the offer is for me to come to New Orleans with you?” I ask. Klaus nods confirming my question. “If this is just another--” I start.

“It’s not,” Klaus quickly interrupts.

“Ok. When are you leaving?” I ask.

“I planned on leaving tomorrow but I can wait until you make a decision,” Klaus says.

“I’ll let you know by tomorrow then...Deal?” I ask.

“Deal,” Klaus smiles.

~Later that night~

I called to ask everyone to come to my place, to tell them what’s up. Soon enough they arrive.

“Where’s Bonnie and Damon?” I ask the group, but no one seemed to have an answer. “Anyways I asked you all to be here to help me make a decision,” I say.

“Shoot,” Caroline says.

“I’m open ears,” Elena says.

“Ok...well after the ceremony Klaus came to talk to me. He told me that he has information on my family. The only catch is that it’s all in New Orleans,” I explain.

“You don’t think he’s just trying to get you to stay with him?” Stefan asks.

“I’m sure. But I just wanted to ask you guys if I should take his offer,” I say.

“Yes! One, you don’t need to ask us permission. And Two if going to New Orleans means learning about your family then yes take his offer,” Caroline says taking my hands in hers.

“I agree with Caroline. Plus we’ll be in college having our own adventures. But you have to promise to stay in contact,” Elena says.

“If it makes you happy,” Stefan says. 

“Thanks, guys,” I say.

“So when do you leave?” Caroline asks.  
“I have to leave tomorrow,” I say.

“Well, at least we’ll know where you’ll be,” Elena says.

“Seriously thanks, guys. I wish everyone else was here. But even though I put myself in your situation at first, I’m glad I did. You’re my family now. I promise I’ll stay in contact,” I say as we all hug.

~The Next Day~

I pack up my stuff and head to Klaus’ mansion.

“Klaus?!” I yell through the mansion.

“Hello,” He says rounding the corner.

“Hey,” I say.

“I see you decided to take my offer,” Klaus says noticing the suitcase next to me.

“Yeh, I figured you’d be here,” I say.

“Shall we go?” He asks.

“We shall,” I say.


End file.
